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INDUSTRIAL  MANAGEMENT  LIBRARY 


THE 

TWELVE   PRINCIPLES 
OF   EFFICIENCY 

BY 
HARRINGTON   EMERSON 

(SIXTH   I'.nmoif ) 


NEW  YORK 
THE  ENGINEERING  MAGAZINE  CO. 

1924 


Copyright,  1911 
BY  JOHN  R.  DUNLAP 


Copyright,  1913 
BY  THE  ENGINEERING  MAGAZINE  Co. 


INTRODUCTION 

Harrington  Emerson's  earlier  book  "Effi- 
ciency as  a  Basis  for  Operation  and  Wages" 
appeared  originally  in  1908,  and  a  third  edi- 
tion, revised  and  enlarged,  is  being  reissued 
almost  in  parallel  with  this  second  and  later 
work  on  "The  Twelve  Principles  of  Efficiency." 
The  relations  between  the  first  and  second  pre- 
sentations of  the  subject  thus  become  clear. 
The  former  sets  forth  a  new  view  of  the  whole 
industrial  problem  and  of  the  relations  and 
proportions  of  the  factors  entering  into  it.  It 
is  the  declaration  of  a  philosophy.  This  latter 
work,  stronger  even  than  its  predecessor,  and 
more  specific  in  statement,  reduces  the  doc- 
trine of  efficiency  to  a  code  upon  which  to  base 
rules  of  practice. 

In  the  volume  now  published,  the  author  de- 
fines twelve  principles  by  which  efficiency  is 
determined.  Five  of  these  concern  relations 
between  men — or,  in  the  industrial  problem, 
specifically  between  employer  and  employee. 
Seven  of  them  concern  methods  or  institutions 
and  systems  established  in  the  manufacturing 
plant  or  in  the  operating  and  distributing  com- 
pany. These  twelve  principles  are  so  definite, 

1 


701079 


ii  INTRODUCTION 

so  constant,  so  true,  that  they  may  be  used  as 
gauges.  Any  industry,  any  establishment,  any 
operation,  may  be  tested  thereby,  and  its  in- 
efficiency located  and  measured  by  the  amount 
of  its  failure  to  conform  to  one  or  more  of  the 
twelve  principles. 

Yet  the  twelve  principles  are  not  isolated 
and  independent  influences,  but  are  interde- 
pendent and  co-ordinated — related  to  one  an- 
other (in  the  author's  effective  simile)  as  the 
stones  of  a  dome.  One  or  even  several  may 
be  lacking;  yet  the  structure,  though  weak- 
ened and  imperfect,  will  stand.  From  a  wholly 
material,  non-moral,  and  near-visioned  point 
of  view,  indeed,  the  seven  "practical"  princi- 
ples alone  would  be  sufficient  for  the  achieve- 
ment of  success.  Even  an  evil  purpose  can  be 
most  effectively  accomplished  by  their  observ- 
ance. When,  however,  these  are  interlocked 
with  the  five  "altruistic"  principles,  purposes, 
as  well  as  measures,  are  turned  from  lower 
temporary  desires  to  the  larger  eternal  desira- 
bilities. The  doctrines  of  efficiency  therefore 
define  something  infinitely  greater  than  a  sys- 
tem of  management.  They  set  forth  a  moral- 
ity, and  provide  practicable  measures  for  its 
attainment. 

The  method  of  treatment  is  simple  and  log- 
ical. An  introductory  chapter  lays  down  the 
premise  that  the  prime  institutions  for  the 
attainment  of  efficiency  are  not  men,  materials, 
money,  machines,  methods,  but  theories  of  or- 


INTRODUCTION  ill 

ganization  and  principles,  and  that  inefficiency 
prevails  because  the  type  of  organization  in 
general  use  does  not  lend  itself  to  the  applica- 
tion of  efficiency  principles.  The  second  chap- 
ter discusses  the  type  of  organization  under 
which  efficiency  principles  can  be  successfully 
applied.  The  twelve  following  chapters  take 
up  each  one  a  single  principle: — 1.  Ideals;  2. 
Common-Sense  and  Judgment;  3.  Competent 
Counsel;  4.  Discipline;  5.  The  Fair  Deal;  6. 
Reliable,  Immediate  and  Accurate  Records;  7. 
Planning  and  Despatching;  8.  Standards  and 
Schedules;  9.  Standardized  Conditions;  10. 
Standardized  Operations;  11.  Written  Stand- 
ard-Practice Instructions;  12.  Efficiency  Re- 
ward. Two  concluding  chapters  show  how  the 
principles  are  applied  as  a  means  of  diagnosis 
of  industrial  conditions  and  correction  of  exist- 
ing inefficiencies. 

THE    PUBLISHERS. 


PREFACE 

Why  has  the  time  come  to  discard  the  old 
and  use  the  new? 

What  past  truths  have  become  fallacies? 

What  new  truths  are  becoming  basic? 

Why  has  this  book  been  written? 

These  are  some  of  the  queries  to  which  the 
reader  may  justly  expect  answers,  especially  if 
they  reveal  the  point  of  view  from  which  the 
principles  of  efficiency  have  been  collated, 
elaborated,  and  applied. 

"What  about  the  man?"  What  about  hu- 
manity, present  and  future?  This  is  the  test 
to  be  applied  to  every  ideal,  to  every  organiza- 
tion, to  all  equipment;  the  ideal  of  humanity  is 
to  be  kept  burning  by  every  executive,  because 
the  ideal  of  humanity,  not  the  ideal  of  selfish 
gain,  underlies  every  principle  of  efficiency. 

My  eldest  daughter  accuses  me  of  starting 
every  discussion  with  the  period  before  Adam. 
This  is  perhaps  due  to  a  lingering,  but  almost 
obliterated,  trace  of  German  Grundlichkeit 
pounded  into  me  in  German  schooldays.  (From 
the  remote  beginning  there  have  been  forward 
steps  which  we  now  clearly  see,  but  which 
were  not  perceived  at  the  time.)  French 


Vi  PREFACE 

teaching,  of  which  I  also  had  full  share,  if  not 
so  thorough  as  German,  is  far  more  logical  and 
clear.  The  French  always  seek  causes  and 
accept  what  flows  from  them. 

Beginning,  therefore,  before  Adam,  we  can 
go  back  to  a  time  when  there  was  no  life  on 
this  planet,  when  molar,  molecular,  and  corpus- 
cular forces  were  active,  and  in  strict  obedi- 
ence to  unsentient  law,  there  was  the  logical 
morality  of  the  conditions.  The  moralities  of 
physical  movements,  of  chemical  affinities,  of 
corpuscular  activities,  are  teaching  us  more 
and  more ;  they  are  still  our  foundations. 

After  a  long  while  life  came  to  our  earth, 
and  its  one  morality  seems  to  have  been 
"Every  creature  for  itself  and  its  descendants." 
Between  species  and  species  there  was  no  jus- 
tice, no  mercy;  between  individual  and  indi- 
vidual, no  justice,  no  mercy;  only  a  dawning 
of  morality  in  conjugal  and  parental  love.  In 
those  days,  deceit,  rapacity,  cruelty,  dishonesty, 
unchastity  were  the  great  virtues  since  only 
those  survived  who  practiced  them  most  assidu- 
ously. 

Then  man  appeared,  and  practising  all  the 
old  virtues,  he  slowly  evolved  a  higher  moral- 
ity. "Thou  shalt  not  steal,  thou  shalt  not  kill, 
thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery,  thou  shalt  not 
bear  false  witness,  thou  shalt  love  they  neigh- 
bor as  thyself."  The  tenets  of  all  the  great 
religions  exhale  the  individual  duty  to  the 
individual  neighbor.  From  the  period  of  this 


PREFACE  Vll 

higher  but  narrow  morality  we  are  just 
emerging. 

In  the  last  150  years  another  event  has  oc- 
curred, next  in  importance  to  the  advent  of 
life,  to  the  advent  of  humanity.  This  event  is 
the  substitution  of  coal,  oil,  gas,  and  distant 
waterfalls  for  human,  for  animal  muscular 
energy,  for  nearby  use  of  wind  and  water  cur- 
rent. Formerly  men  carried  out  their  plans  by 
forcing  other  men,  by  compelling  asses,  oxen 
and  horses  to  work  for  them. 

Now  men  carry  out  their  plans  by  making 
uncarnate  forces  work.  Two  men  or  two 
horses  working  together  work  more  efficiently 
than  four;  one  man  or  one  horse  singly  works 
more  than  half  as  much  as  two  working  to- 
gether. The  most  efficient  incarnate  unit  is 
therefore  one  man,  one  horse.  How  does  man 
power  or  horse  power  compare  with  uncarnate 
power? 

COMPARISONS 

Man.    Horse.    Power  Engine. 
Weight   per   horse   power, 

pounds   1,000    1,000  2     to  100 

Fuel  per  horse-power  hour, 

pounds   . . . . ; 6        3.6  0.6  to      8 

Cost  of  food  per  ton $40       $20  $1  to  $40 

Maximum  horse  power,  per 

unit   T H         1.      70,000ormore 

Available     working     time, 

per  cent 40         40  40—90 

Tilling  the  soil  even  with  so  perfected  a  tool 
as  a  good  spade,  it  would  take  560  seasons  to 
turn  over  a  square  mile  of  land,  640  acres.  A 


viii  PREFACE 

man  with  a  team  and  good  plow  can  do  it  in 
four  seasons.  I  tried  it  and  became  dis- 
couraged. Twelve  men  with  three  mechanical 
tractors  and  fifty-one  plows  in  a  gang  can  turn 
over  640  acres  in  36  hours.  I  have  a  photo- 
graph of  the  outfit  at  work. 

PER  CENT  OF  ENERGY  FROM  FUEL 

Small  steam  plant 5 

Man  working  steadily  in  a  manual  trade 7 

Large  steam  or  oil  plant 10 

Small  gas  engine 20 

Man  working  for  a  short  time  at  maximum  of  en- 
durance    21 

Large  gas  engine 30 

At  $2.00  a  day,  man  power  costs  per  horse 
power,  $54,000  per  year  of  7,500  hours.  In  a 
small  gasoline  engine  it  costs  $300  a  year  per 
horse  power;  for  large  power  installations, 
whether  steam,  gas  or  electrical,  it  costs  from 
$20  a  year  up  to  $200  per  horse  power.  Man 
power  costs  therefore  from  135  to  1,350  times 
as  much  as  uncarnate  power. 

Thirty  men,  as  men  work,  will  yield  1  horse 
power  of  energy  each  hour,  but  so  will  1  to  5 
pounds  of  coal.  A  ton  of  coal  may  be  assumed 
to  have  the  energy  of  five  men  for  a  whole  year. 

One  hundred  and  sixty  years  ago  the  use  of 
coal  had  not  yet  begun  on  a  commercial  scale; 
all  the  work  was  done  by  man  and  beast.  Sixty 
years  ago  in  the  United  States  the  consumption 
of  coal,  used  most  wastefully,  was  one-quarter 
ton  per  adult  male,  each  ton  able  to  do  the  work 
of  five  men.  Today  the  consumption  of  coal  is 


PREFACE  x 

equal  to  the  energy  of  22  men  and  the  energy 
from  oil,  from  gas,  from  distant  waterfalls,  is 
not  included. 

On  the  average  each  adult  man  is  supple- 
mented by  22  mechanical  slaves  whose  keep 
averages  less  than  one  four-hundredth  of  his 
own  value  of  $2.00  a  day. 

As  a  producer  of  muscular  energy  man  is 
hopelessly  outclassed,  as  an  intelligent  super- 
visor and  director  he  is  just  beginning  to  come 
into  his  inheritance.  In  these  directions  he 
has  no  competition  nor  limit  to  his  value. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  ages  from  which  we  are 
just  emerging,  the  wealth  of  the  few  was  based 
on  the  poverty  of  the  many.  The  free  inhabi- 
tants of  Athens  reached  the  highest  state  of 
real  civilization  the  planet  has  ever  seen  be- 
cause for  every  free  man  there  were  at  least 
five  slaves.  Pharaoh,  advised  by  Joseph,  grew 
rich  by  using  the  seven  years  of  famine  to  rob 
his  people  of  their  money,  their  savings,  their 
cattle,  their  lands  and  their  liberty.  As  slaves 
they  could  be  and  were  requisitioned  to  do  mus- 
cular work,  as  beating  the  ponds  at  night  to 
scare  the  frogs  that  their  masters  might  sleep, 
or  to  swing  fans  all  night,  as  in  India  today, 
that  the  rich  may  slumber.  Those  few  who 
were  rich  were  supported  by  the  labor  of  the 
many.  Today  this  is  not  so. 

If  some  gifted  thinker  should  discover  a 
method  of  making  the  sun  convert  lead  into 
radium,  a  million  times  more  powerful  than 


X  PREFACE 

coal,  he  would  have  robbed  no  one,  he  would 
have  impoverished  none,  he  would  immensely 
benefit  humanity,  even  though  the  discovery 
netted  him  $1,000,000,000. 

Muscular  energy  no  longer  counts  for  much. 
The  world's  energy  comes  from  engines,  and 
any  man  who  develops  a  tool  or  machine  to  do 
work  formerly  done  by  men  is  adding  to  the 
number  of  tireless  slaves  who  serve  first  the 
inventor  and  then  all  humanity.  It  is  not  true 
that  a  machine  permanently  displaces  a  man; 
it  promotes  him,  but  it  is  the  duty  of  corpora- 
tions and  of  the  State  to  make  the  period  of 
transition  easy,  not  one  of  temporary  hardship. 

It  is  not  labor,  not  capital,  not  land,  that  has 
created  modern  wealth  or  is  creating  it  today. 
It  is  ideas  that  create  wealth,  and  what  is 
wanted  is  more  ideas — more  uncovering  of 
natural  reservoirs,  and  less  labor  and  capital 
and  land  per  unit  of  production.  Gold  has 
very  little  intrinsic  value,  diamonds  have  none 
except  to  cut  glass  and  stone.  It  is  a  thought, 
a  sentiment,  that  gives  value  to  gold  and  dia- 
monds ;  it  was  the  invention  of  the  incandescent 
lamp  that  doubled  the  value  of  platinum. 
Columbus  with  his  idea  of  land  to  the  west, 
Franklin,  Washington,  Jefferson,  with  their 
ideas  of  liberty,  Jefferson  with  his  idea  of  ter- 
ritorial expansion,  Fulton  with  his  idea  of  the 
steamboat,  Stephenson  with  his  creation  of  the 
locomotive  and  track;  it  was  Howe,  Morse, 
Edison,  Westinghouse,  Bell  and  Gray,  Marconi ; 


PREFACE  XI 

it  was  Lincoln,  it  was  Rockefeller,  Carnegie, 
J.  J.  Hill  and  Harriman  with  their  ideas,  it  was 
Roosevelt  with  the  Panama  Canal,  that  have 
made  the  United  States  what  it  is.  All  these 
men  used  labor  and  capital  to  uncover  and 
develop  the  hitherto  unutilized  resources  of  the 
universe. 

The  Dutch  and  the  Huguenots  settled  in 
South  Africa  about  the  same  time  North 
America  above  the  gulf  was  colonized.  The 
United  States  grew  on  account  of  ideas ;  South 
Africa  remained  undeveloped  because  of 
paucity  of  ideas,  paucity  of  energy.  The  blacks 
had  to  do  the  work.  There  was  no  use  for 
steam  engines. 

Muscular  effort  can  be  stimulated  by  the  lash 
— intelligent  supervision,  intellectual  produc- 
tion, never!  One  single  idea  may  have  greater 
value  than  all  the  labor  of  all  the  men,  animals, 
and  engines  for  a  century.  The  age  of  mus- 
cular human  effort  and  of  the  lash  is  passing 
away,  and  the  old  morality  with  it;  the  age  of 
supervision,  of  co-operative  stimulus,  is  in  full 
advance;  and  with  it  comes  a  new  morality, 
under  which  the  Golden  Rule  can  be  extended 
from  the  relations  between  individuals  to 
those  between  classes,  nationalities,  and  races. 
The  highest  official  cannot  dictate  to  the  young- 
est apprenticed  worker.  Both  are  creatures  of 
the  machine,  but  both  in  turn  must  serve  it, 
for  unless  its  every  law  and  need  is  lived  up 
to,  it  will  refuse  to  work  efficiently,  often  re- 


xii  PREFACE 

fuse  to  work  at  all.  With  these  new  duties  and 
privileges  of  men  toward  each  other  old  truths 
become  fallacies  and  paradoxes  become  the 
basic  truths  of  tomorrow. 

To  forward  the  new  morality,  to  extend  the 
dominion  of  man  over  uncarnate  energy  and 
its  use,  to  substitute  highly  paid  thinkers  and 
supervisors  for  devitalized  toilers,  to  help  each 
individual,  each  corporation,  each  government 
to  meet  its  part  of  the  obligation,  above  all  to 
inspire  those  executives  on  whose  skill  all  prog- 
ress and  all  wise  performance  depends,  is  the 
justification  of  these  essays. 

HARRINGTON  EMERSON 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I.     ORGANIZATION  AND  PRINCIPLES  THE 
PRIME  INSTRUMENTS  FOR  EFFICIENCY 

The  Efficiency  Problem  Exemplified  by  an 
Actual  Example — How  60  per  cent  Increase 
of  Output  with  10  per  cent  Increase  of  Pay- 
roll Was  Attained  in  Six  Months — 50  per  cent 
Reduction  in  Payroll  Cost  in  Twelve  Months 
— This  Reduction  Secured  by  a  New  Type  of 
Organization  and  Application  of  Certain  Prin- 
ciples—  Principles  More  Potent  than  Ma- 
terial, Money,  Machines  or  Methods — Power 
of  These  Principles  Shown  by  Recent  History 
— The  Franco-Prussian  War  as  an  Example — 
How  Bismarck  and  von  Moltke  Applied  the 
Twelve  Principles  of  Efficiency — Japan's  Ap- 
plication of  Them  the  Cause  of  Her  Military 
and  Industrial  Prowess — Application  of  Effi- 
ciency Principles  the  Basis  of  Ascendency 

CHAPTER  II.  THE  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION  THROUGH 
WHICH  EFFICIENCY  Is  ATTAINED 

Inefficiency  Is  Caused  by  Industrial  Disease 
— The  Germ  of  this  Disease  Is  Defective  Or- 
ganization— Two  Fundamental  Types  of  Or- 
ganization Described  and  Exemplified  —  Line 
Organization  Effective  for  Offense  and  De- 
struction— Staff  Organization  Effective  for 
Defense  and  Construction  —  Inefficiency  of 
Line  Organization  Shown  in  the  Spanish- 
American  War — Strenuousness  the  Opposite 
of  Efficiency  —  Piece-Rates  Based  on  the 
Theory  of  Strenuousness — Standard  Times 
and  Bonus  on  the  Theory  of  Efficiency — Ex- 
amples of  Industrial  Mistakes  Due  to  De- 
fective Organization — Ordinary  Organization 
Passes  All  Power  and  Responsibility  to  the 

xiii 


Xiv  CONTENTS 

Workman  —  Functional  Organization  Brings 
All  Knowledge  and  Skill  to  the  Assistance  of 
the  Workman — Many  Modes  of  Introducing 
Efficiency-Control  into  Line  Direction — Gen- 
eral Form  of  an  Efficient  Organization 27 

CHAPTER    III.    THE    FIRST    PRINCIPLE:    CLEARLY 
DEFINED  IDEALS 

Efficiency  Principles,  though  Interrelated, 
Stand  in  Logical  Sequence — The  First  Es- 
sential Is  Correct  Ideals  and  Purposes — 
Examples  of  Perverse  and  Deleterious  Ideals 
— Their  Costly  Results — Even  Greater  Losses 
from  Vague  Ideals  or  No  Ideals — The  Ameri- 
can Temperament  Stronger  in  Impulses  than 
in  Fixed  Ideals — National  Characteristics  as 
Revealed  by  Ideals  Carried  into  Execution — 
The  Seven  Ancient  Wonders  of  the  World — 
The  Seven  Modern  Wonders — Efficiency  Ideals 
Weak  in  Modern  Engineering  Works — The 
Fallacy  of  Over-Reliance  on  Equipment — Re- 
lations of  the  Efficiency  Engineer  to  the  For- 
mulation of  Ideals — The  Alternatives  Offered 
the  Modern  Manager 59 

CHAPTER  IV.    THE  SECOND  PRINCIPLE:   COMMON 
SENSE 

Supernal  Common- Sense  versus  Near  Com- 
mon-Sense— The  Difference  Illustrated  by  Ex- 
amples-— American  Enterprise  Characteristic- 
ally Given  to  Exhausting  Natural  Resources 
—  Continental  Enterprise  Characteristically 
Devoted  to  Realizing  Immaterial  Resources — 
The  Difference  Exemplified  by  American  Ex- 
ports and  Imports — Contrast  between  German 
and  American  Governmental  Policy — Evil 
Consequences  of  the  American  Tonnage  Mania 
— The  Curse  of  Immediacy  —  Characteristics 
of  American  Industrial  Managers — Modifying 
the  Type  of  Organization  the  First  Step  to- 
ward True  Ideals  and  Sound  Common-Sense  91 

CHAPTER  V.    THE  THIRD  PRINCIPLE:   COMPETENT 
COUNSEL 

American  Industrial  Leadership  Character- 
istically Self-Reliant — Reluctance  to  Seek  Ad- 


CONTENTS  XV 

vice  of  Specialists — Competent  Counsel  Neces- 
sarily Derived  from  Many  Minds — The  Estab- 
lishment of  Efficiency  Counsel  a  Constructive 
Type  of  Organization  —  Competent  Counsel 
Justified  by  Many  Recognized  Examples....  119 

CHAPTER    VI.     THE    FOURTH    PRINCIPLE:    DIS- 
CIPLINE 

Institutions  that  Have  Been  Built  upon  Dis- 
cipline— Railway  Operation  an  Object  Lesson 
—The  Meaning  of  Discipline  as  an  Efficiency 
Principle — Discipline  as  a  Regulator  of  Con- 
duct—Discipline Exemplified  by  Nature's  Op- 
erations— Esprit  du  Corps  a  Species  of  Dis- 
cipline —  Failure  of  Social  Institutions  that 
Repudiate  Discipline  —  The  Reciprocal  Faith 
Inspired  by  Discipline—It  Meets  Great  Emerg- 
encies—  Industrial  Disasters  Traceable  to 
Lack  of  Discipline  —  Definition  of  the  Self- 
Executing  Discipline  which  Constitutes  an 
Efficiency  Principle 135 

CHAPTER  VII.    THE  FIFTH  PRINCIPLE:  THE  FAIR 
DEAL 

Old-Fash ioned  Conceptions  of  Organization 
Blind  to  the  Fair  Deal — Persistence  of  these 
Low  Ideals  in  Modern  Industry — Acknow- 
ledgement of  the  Fair  Deal  Must  Begin  with 
the  Employer— The  Fair  Deal  Essential  to 
National  Preservation — Proof  of  this  Found  in 
the  Future  Relations  of  Wage  Earners  to  Na- 
tional Efficiency — Examples  of  Unfair  Deal  in 
Industrial  and  Commercial  Management — 
Effects  on  the  Acts  and  Purposes  of  Employ- 
ees— The  Fair  Deal  and  Wage  Relations  De- 
fined— Nine  Provisions  that  Should  Constitute 
Standard  Practice 167 

CHAPTER  VIII.    THE  SIXTH  PRINCIPLE:  RELIABLE, 
IMMEDIATE  AND  ADEQUATE  RECORDS 

The  meaning  of  Records  as  an  Efficiency 
Principle — The  Nature  of  Records — Object  of 
Records — Use  of  Records — Records  of  -Effi- 
ciency and  Cost  of  Locomotive  Repairs — An- 
alysis of  Operation  Costs  Duly  Recorded — Re- 
lation between  Standard  Costs  and  Recorded 


XVi  CONTENTS 

Costs — How  Records  Aid  the  Prosecution  of 
Efficiency — Quality  the  First  Consideration — 
Fallacy  of  Reduction  of  Wages — Efficiency 
and  Quality  Improved  by  Higher  Payment  per 
Unit- — What  Facts  as  to  Every  Operation  an 
Efficiency  Record  Should  Show — Relations  of 
Cost- Accounting  to  Efficiency  Records — The 
Cost  Formula  as  an  Instrument  for  the  Reduc- 
tion of  Wastes 205 

CHAPTER    IX.     THE    SEVENTH    PRINCIPLE:    DES- 
PATCHING 

Despatching  a  Fundamental  Principle  of 
Nature's  Cycles — Examples — Marvels  of  Des- 
patching in  Railway  Operation — Absence  of 
Despatching  in  Shop  Operations — Examples 
of  Resultant  Inefficiency — How  Despatching 
may  Improve  Conditions  in  a  Great  Organiza- 
tion— Despatching  Unstandardized  Work  More 
Profitable  than  Standardizing  Undespatched 
Work 241 

CHAPTER  X.    THE  EIGHTH  PRINCIPLE:  STANDARDS 
AND  SCHEDULES 

Two  Kinds  of  Standards  and  Schedules — 
Time  and  Motion  Studies  a  Sub-Division  of 
Standards  —  Typical  Schedules  of  Man-Effi- 
ciency— The  Diagram  Discussed  —  Diagrams 
of  Standard  Performances  in  Physical  Effort 
— The  Relation  of  Wage  Systems  to  Standard 
Performances — Piece-Rates  Objectionable  be- 
cause They  Stimulate  Strenuousness  instead 
of  Efficiency — Establishment  and  Use  of  Ra- 
tional Work  Standards  261 

CHAPTER  XI.    THE  NINTH  PRINCIPLE:    STANDARD- 
IZED CONDITIONS 

Nature's  Achievements  in  Standardization 
of  Creature  and  Environment — Standardizing 
Ourselves  to  Environment — Standardizing  En- 
vironment to  Ourselves — Human  Achievements 
in  Standardizing  Conditions — Relations  of 
Standardized  Conditions  to  Individual  Achieve- 
ment of  New  Standards — Standards  as  a  Pro- 
gressive Evolution  279 


CONTENTS  xvii 

CHAPTER  XII.    THE  TENTH  PRINCIPLE:  STANDARD- 
IZED OPERATIONS 

Standardized  Operations  Reached  only  by 
Observance  of  Preceding  Principles — Details, 
though  Appalling  in  Number,  are  Successfully 
Controlled  by  Systematic  Approach — Exam- 
ples of  Standardized  Operations  in  Manufac- 
ture— Progressive  Betterment  of  Performance 
not  Hampered  by  Standardization — The  Meth- 
ods of  Efficiency  Work  through  the  Preceding 
Principles  to  the  Standardization  of  Operation 
—The  Profitable  Results  of  Planning 297 

CHAPTER  XIII.    THE  ELEVENTH  PRINCIPLE:  WRIT- 
TEN STANDARD-PRACTICE  INSTRUCTIONS 

Race  Progress  Is  Slow  until  the  Records  of 
Knowledge  can  Be  Preserved — Ideals,  Arts, 
and  Crafts  Lost  through  Lack  of  Written 
Records — Examples  of  the  Advantages  of 
Written  Records — The  Influence  of  the  Code 
Napoleon — How  Recorded  Instructions  Have 
Operated  to  Increase  Naval  Efficiency — The 
Operation  of  the  Principle  in  Industrial  Estab- 
lishments— Steps  Essential  to  Introducing 
Standard  Instructions  in  Engineering  Works 
— Growth  of  the  Body  of  Standard-Practice 
Instructions — What  Can  Be  Accomplished 319 

CHAPTER  XIV.    THE  TWELFTH  PRINCIPLE:  EFFIC- 
IENCY REWARD 

Desire  of  Reward  a  Natural  Instinct — It 
Maintains  and  Stimulates  the  Preservation  of 
the  Race — Natural  Selection  an  Automatic 
Payment  of  Efficiency  Reward — Hopeless  Per- 
versity of  Attempting  to  Nullify  Efficiency  Re- 
ward by  a  Level  Wage  System — Compensation 
for  Work  cannot  Remain  an  Exception  to  the 
Natural  Law — The  Question  of  Union  Opposi- 
tion— Essential  Basis  for  a  Just  Efficiency  Re- 
ward— Piece-Rates  Based  upon  a  Wrong  Prin- 
ciple— Conditions  under  which  they  may  Be 
Made  Tolerable — Profit-Sharing  not  Efficiency 
Reward — A  System  that  Meets  the  Demands 
of  Equity — Time  Payments  and  Bonus  Re- 
wards— Halsey,  Gantt,  and  Taylor  as  Con- 


Xviii  CONTENTS 

tributors  to  a  Just  Understanding  of  Correct 
Wage  Principles — The  Efficiency  System  of 
Wage  Payment  in  Practical  Operation — Its 
Nine  Essential  Parts  —  Efficiency  Reward 
Brings  to  their  Highest  Development  Mater- 
ials, Muscle,  Mind  and  Spirit 341 

CHAPTER  XV.    EFFICIENCY  PRINCIPLES  APPLIED  TO 
MEASUREMENT  AND  CURE  OF  WASTES 

Waste  Elimination  a  Fundamental  Ideal  of 
Efficiency  Effort — Every  Waste  Elimination 
Brings  Immediate  Reward — Differences  be- 
tween Masculine  and  Feminine  Instincts — In- 
tuition and  Individuality  Characteristically 
Feminine — Organization  and  Development  of 
Principles  Essentially  Masculine — The  Lesson 
Illustrated  by  History — Wastes  Eliminated 
not  by  Intuition,  but  through  Principles — 
Trusts  Originate  through  Intuition;  they  can 
Succeed  only  through  Adoption  of  Principles 
— Testing  Plant  Efficiency  by  the  Application 
of  Principles — Successive  Steps  in  the  Better- 
ment of  Plant  Efficiency — The  Method  Applied 
to  the  Steel  Corporation — Differences  Between 
the  Old  and  the  Modern  Principles  of  Account- 
ing— Fundamentals  of  Modern  Accounting  Are 
Standards,  Efficiencies,  Equipments  —  Why 
Graft  could  not  Prevail  where  these  Standards 
Are  Applied  371 

CHAPTER  XVI.    EXECUTIVE  CONTROL  OF  LINE  AND 
STAFF 

The  Philosophy  of  Efficiency  Applied  to  an 
Industrial  Plant  —  The  Best  Plant  with 
the  Best  Philosophy  of  Efficiency  Helpless 
without  Executive  Direction — Supremacy  of 
the  Strong  Man  Indispensable — He  Must  Co- 
Ordinate  Line  and  Staff — Not  Essential  that 
the  Executive  Be  Expert  in  either  Staff  or 
Line — Essential  That  He  Have  Powers  of  Di- 
rection and  Co-Ordination — Power  of  Leader- 
ship Exemplified  in  History  and  Industry — 
What  the  Great  Corporations  might  Become 
under  Supernal  Men,  Working  through  Princi- 
ples to  Realize  Supernal  Ideals 401 


"•»"*.*•»  J. 
•»•»•       '••»•«*,• 


THE  TWELVE  PRINCIPLES  OF 
EFFICIENCY. 


The  wise  man  built  his  house  upon  a  rock;  and  the 
rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds 
blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house;  and  it  fell  not;  for 
it  was  founded  upon  a  rock.  But  the  foolish  man  built 
his  house  upon  the  sand;  and  the  rain  descended,  and 
the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon 
that  house;  and  it  fell;  and  great  was  the  fall  of  it. — 
St.  Matthew,  7,  24-27. 

He  also  that  is  slothful  in  his  work  is  brother  to 
him  that  is  a  great  waster. — Proverbs,  18,  9. 

By  the  wisdom  of  the  centuries  I  speak, 
To  the  tune  of  yestermorn  I  set  the  truth; 

I,  the  joy  of  life  unquestioned;  I,  the  Greek; 
I,  the  everlasting  wonder  Song  of  Youth! 

RUDYARD  KIPLING. 


THE   TWELVE  PRINCIPLES   OF 
EFFICIENCY 

CHAPTER  I 

ORGANIZATION   AND   PRINCIPLES   THE 
PRIME  INSTRUMENTS  FOR  EFFICIENCY 


The  invisible  makes  the  nation.  The  nation  is  not 
made  great,  it  is  not  made  rich,  it  is  not  made  at  all, 
by  mines  and  forests  and  prairies  and  water  powers. 
Great  men  make  a  great  nation  great,  and  the  quali- 
ties that  make  men  great  are  invisible. — LYMAN 
ABBOTT. 


THE  owners  of  a  large  industrial  plant 
with   many   orders   ahead   desired   to 
increase    the    output    from    thirteen 
units  a  month,  the  highest  average  up  to  that 
time,  to  twenty-three  units  a  month,  and  to  do 
this  in  ten  months. 

The  manager  of  the  plant,  a  man  of  unusual 
ability  but  of  the  old  school,  had  been  in  charge 
for  some  time,  but  knew  only  one  way  to  de- 
liver the  increase,  namely,  to  add  to  equipment 

3 


4  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

and  employ  more  men.  He  therefore  countered 
the  demand  of  the  owners  for  twenty-three 
units  by  asking  for  $500,000  worth  of  addi- 
tional equipment.  Even  if  this  capital  invest- 
ment had  been  possible,  it  was  no  solution  of 
the  difficulty,  as  it  would  have  taken  at  least  a 
year,  probably  longer,  to  secure  the  new  equip- 
ment. 

When  matters  were  in  this  state — demand 
for  increased  output  by  owners,  demand  for  in- 
creased equipment  by  manager — an  investiga- 
tion of  the  plant  was  made  by  two  competent 
efficiency  engineers  of  wide  experience,  who 
;submitted  a  long  report  of  which  the  conclud- 
ing paragraphs  were : — 

Your  plant  consists  of  a  large 
Machine  Shop, 
Boiler  Shop, 
Erecting  Shop, 
Blacksmith  Shop, 
Foundry. 

Having  examined  into  the  conditions  of  each  of  the 
shops  and  having  consulted  with  the  manager,  the 
superintendent,  the  various  foremen,  some  of  the  con- 
tractors, and  a  number  of  men,  we  are  able  to  state 
definitely  that  with  some  slight  physical  betterments, 
and  provided  the  present  manager,  or  a  man  of  similar 
disposition  be  in  authority,  the  output  of  your  shops 
can  be  increased  60  per  cent,  without  adding  to  the 
present  forces,  without  adding  to  the  equipment,  and 
without  increasing  the  payroll  more  than  10  per  cent, 
and  that  these  results  can  be  gradually  attained  within 
a  period  of  six  months. 


ELEMENTARY   PRINCIPLES   OF  EFFICIENCY     5 

To  accomplish  these  results  certain  prin- 
ciples of  organization  were  advocated.  The 
organization  and  principles  were  adopted  and 
applied  by  the  managers,  and  the  results  are 
shown  by  an  extract  from  a  letter,  written  by 
the  local  official  ten  months  later. 

NEW  YORK,  May  1,  1908. 

It  will  interest  you  to  know  that  our  output  for  the 
month  of  April  showed  an  increase  of  69.2  per  cent 
over  the  monthly  average  of  the  last  fiscal  year. 

The  average  working  hours  are  9  per  day  instead 
of  10  as  formerly.  The  payroll  reduction  is  15  per 
cent,  amounting  to  $8,000  to  $10,000  a  month  less  than 
last  year. 

The  same  efficiency  engineers  were  subse- 
quently called  to  another  plant,  to  investigate 
and  to  advise.  In  this  case  also  their  principles 
were  accepted,  their  recommendations  carried 
into  effect  through  modified  organization  with 
the  following  results: 


j 

i 
j 

• 
i 

3^  a 

S2- 
fcSd 

3§ 

a 

>* 

O  V 

X  a 
*tS  c 

C9   C    4> 

S'2S 

Q 

^ 

:£% 

<HS 

SS 

£ 

«0   0 

CUUH 

£w^ 

Sept., 
July, 

'08.... 
'09.... 

527 
263 

4.69 
9.04 

2,473 
2,377 

$29,380 
15,248 

$11.88 
6.41 

0    % 
2    % 

Aug., 

'09.... 

298 

10.51 

3,133 

17,280 

5.51 

10    % 

Sept., 

'09.... 

312 

10.92 

3,408 

17,394 

5.14 

17.3% 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  two  men  could 
come  from  the  far  west,  go  into  eastern  indus- 
trial plants,  and  through  their  own  familiarity 
with  the  conditions  know  better  how  to  direct 


6  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

them  than  the  experienced  local  managers  in 
charge.  The  men  who  came  out  of  the  west 
were  not  as  well  equipped  with  knowledge  of 
operation  or  devices,  were  not  as  well  ac- 
quainted with  local  methods  and  men,  as  the 
local  managers,  but  they  were  far  better  equip- 
ped with  knowledge  of  a  new  type  of  organi- 
zation through  which  alone  efficiency  can  be 
secured,  and  they  had  not  only  this  knowledge 
but  also  extended  and  successful  experience  in 
applying  it. 

The  difference  in  achievement  between  the 
modern  man  and  the  men  who  lived  thousands 
of  years  ago  is  not  an  internal  difference  in 
quality  of  brain,  but  the  tremendous  external 
difference  in  conditions  and  equipment.  The 
boy  with  the  far-reaching  sling  knocks  out  the 
heavily  armored  spear-wielding  giant. 

It  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  advocate  certain 
principles  without  individuals,  tribes,  and  na- 
tions, unable  to  free  themselves  from  the  per- 
sonal point  of  view,  immediately  jumping  to 
the  conclusion  that  an  attack  is  being  made  on 
their  competency,  their  skill.  Greek  athletes 
could  have  made  good  records  if  they  had  had 
bicycles,  motor  cars,  and  aeroplanes,  if  they 
had  had  repeating  pistols  and  rifles;  but  the 


ELEMENTARY   PRINCIPLES   OF  EFFICIENCY      7 

arrow,  however  skilled  the  archer,  does  not 
carry  as  far  or  as  straight  as  the  rifle  bullet. 
The  principle  underlying  the  rifle  is  very  old — 
that  of  the  blow  tube — a  very  different  prin- 
ciple from  that  of  the  bow  and  string ;  but  the 
man  who  equips  the  savage  with  a  rifle  makes 
him  more  powerful  than  all  the  armored 
knights  of  chivalry,  and  the  man  who  equips 
the  modern  industrial  manager  with  a  new  in- 
dustrial application  of  an  old  principle  of  or- 
ganization and  accomplishment,  gives  the  me- 
diocre manager  a  greater  possibility  of  attain- 
ing high  efficiency  than  was  ever  possessed  even 
by  the  greatest  industrial  geniuses  working 
along  the  old  lines.* 
The  men  from  the  west  knew  the  new 

theories  because  they  had  applied  them  on  a 
tremendous  scale ;  they  knew  how  to  design  and 
operate  a  new  kind  of  shop  control,  as  different 
from  the  old  as  the  rifle  is  from  the  bow — as 
different  as  bicycle  riding  is  from  walking,  fly- 
ing from  motoring,  Arabic  notation  from  Ro- 
man numerals.  These  principles  in  their  ap- 
plication to  shop  control  may  not  appear  par- 
ticularly lofty,  inspiring,  or  even  interesting 

*  "Two  kinds  of  success,  that  of  the  rare  genius,  the  other,  that 
of  the  ordinary  man  who  does  ordinary  things  a  little  better  than 
his  fellows." — Roosevelt's  university  address  in  Norway. 


8  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

to  anyone  except  those  whose  pocketbooks  are 
to  be  immediately  benefited — -namely,  the  plant 
owners  and  managers,  the  plant  workers,  and 
the  clients  of  the  plant;  but  they  will  evoke 
deeper  interest  when  it  is  perceived  that  they 
are  fundamental  and  of  universal  application; 
that  in  all  ages  lasting  efficiency  depended  on 
them,  and  without  them  is  always  impossible; 
that  the  same  principles  have  been  applied  else- 
where on  a  stupendous  and  noble  scale,  and 
that  it  is  not  men  and  materials,  money,  ma- 
chines, and  methods  that  count,  but  far  more 
potently  theories  and  principles. 

We  hope  to  arouse  interest  in  these  theories 
and  principles  and  enthusiasm  for  them,  not 
by  sordid  reference  to  the  shop  gains  (although 
this  is  after  all  a  valid  ultimate  test  of  their 
value)  but  by  showing  their  power  in  recent 
history;  and  then,  we  can  begin  at  the  begin- 
ning and  trace  them  up  from  a  pre-human  past 
into  their  noble  work  of  empire  building,  into 
their  not  less  valuable  future  work  of  indus- 
trial upbuilding. 

Two  of  the  most  remarkable  historical  events 
of  the  last  forty  years  are  the  transference  of 
the  leadership  in  Europe  from  a  French  Em- 
peror to  a  German  Emperor,  the  transference 


ELEMENTARY   PRINCIPLES   OF  EFFICIENCY     9 

of  leadership  in  the  oriental  North  Pacific  from 
a  Chinese  Emperor  and  a  Russian  Emperor  to 
a  Japanese  Emperor. 

As  each  of  these  startling  advances  was  due 
to  the  same  theories,  organization,  and  prin- 
ciples, and  as  these  theories,  organization,  and 
principles  are  equally  applicable  to  industrial 
advancement,  it  is  worth  while  to  understand 
what  was  done  and  how  it  was  done,  especially 
as  the  solution  of  similar  problems  in  all  civil- 
ized activities  is  plainly  the  task  of  the  Twen- 
tieth Century. 

As  to  North  and  South  America  the  Six- 
teenth Century  was  the  era  of  discovery;  the 
Seventeenth  Century,  the  era  of  appropriation 
and  settlement;  the  Eighteenth  Century  and 
the  first  quarter  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  the 
era  both  of  making  permanent  what  had  been 
gained  and  of  developing  natural  resources ;  so 
the  Twentieth  Century  dawns  with  the  as  yet 
unaccomplished  task  of  conservation,  of  elim- 
inating wastes — wanton  and  wicked  wastes  of 
all  kinds,  wastes  that  make  our  civic  govern- 
ments a  by-word,  our  destruction  of  natural  re- 
sources a  world  scandal,  our  complacent  indus- 
trial inefficiency  a  peculiarly  national  disgrace, 
since,  of  all  nations,  we  Americans  ought  to 
know  better. 


10  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

It  is  this  national  inefficiency,  this  national 
wastefulness,  this  national  squandering  of  cur- 
rent and  future  material,  human  and  machine 
resources,  that  can  be  remedied,  if  we  but  be- 
lieve and  practice  the  plainest  teachings  of  re- 
cent history,  which  are  an  appropriate  intro- 
duction to  a  statement  of  efficiency  principles 
and  organization. 

After  1850,  Louis  Napoleon  was  for  twenty 
years  the  dominant  figure  in  European  politics. 
The  British  cultivated  his  friendship,  the  Ital- 
ians looked  to  him  for  liberation,  the  Turk 
begged  his  protection,  Russia  was  humbled  by 
him,  and  Austria  sought  his  alliance.  But  in 
the  little  kingdom  of  Prussia,  about  the  size  of 
Colorado,  there  were  two  men — Bismarck,  the 
Statesman,  and  von  Moltke  the  Organizer,  the 
General — who  entered  into  a  partnership  to 
make  their  king  the  Overlord  of  Europe.  King 
William  had  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  Prussia 
in  1861.  He  was  64  years  old,  imbued  with  all 
the  mouldy  traditions  of  the  past,  but  he  trust- 
ed implicitly  his  two  advisers. 

Prussia  was  a  small,  poor,  second-rate  power 
comprising  about  one-fourth  of  Germany  and 
Austria  in  area  and  population,  and  it  was  not 


ELEMENTARY   PRINCIPLES   OF  EFFICIENCY    11 

conceded  by  the  balance  of  Germany  that 
Prussia  had  any  right  to  lead.  Nobody  outside 
of  Germany  cared  a  fig  for  Prussia. 

There  was  only  one  way  to  carry  out  the 
dream  of  the  King's  two  advisers.  There  must 
be: 

(1)  A  definite  plan  or  ideal,  a  standard. 

(2)  An  organization  of  a  form  capable  of 
attaining  and  maintaining  the  ideals  through 
the  application  of  principles. 

(3)  Equipment  of  men,  money,  materials, 
machines,  and  methods  to  enable  the  organiza- 
tion, through  the  application  of  principles,  to 
attain  and  maintain  the  ideals. 

(4)  Leaders,  competent  and  forceful,  making 
the    organization    and   equipment   attain   and 
maintain  ideals. 

Whether  consciously  or  not  this  was  but  an 
imitation  of  Nature's  way. 

Life  is  the  ideal;  the  body  is  the  organiza- 
tion; eyes  and  ears,  smell  and  taste,  above  all 
touch,  hands  and  feet,  teeth,  clothes,  houses, 
weapons,  are  the  equipment;  and  the  brain  is 
the  leader,  the  commander. 

The  two  leaders  whose  ideals  were  a  tremen- 
dously powerful  German  empire  with  the  Prus- 


12  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

sian  State  and  King  at  its  head,  started  to 
create  their  respective  organizations,  military 
and  diplomatic;  they  started  to  equip  their  or- 
ganizations and  to  make  them  so  powerful  as 
to  be  able  to  realize  the  ideals.  Diplomacy  and 
intrigue  were  used  to  put  each  opponent  in  turn 
in  a  tight  place,  and  then — the  army,  where- 
with to  crush  him.  We  are  not  concerned  with 
the  diplomacy.  It  took  great  skill  to  provoke 
each  quarrel  at  exactly  the  right  moment,  and 
war  was  brought  on  each  time  in  the  pleasant 
summer  season.  Von  Moltke's  task  was  how- 
ever far  more  difficult.  He  could  not  count  on 
having  as  many  men,  as  much  money,  as  abun- 
dant equipment,  or  as  much  material,  as  his 
opponents.  It  was  evident  to  him  that  invisible 
theories  and  principles,  which  his  self-sufficient 
opponents  did  not  recognize  until  too  late, 
would  have  to  make  up  for  meagre  material 
resources,  human  lethargy,  and  awkward 
equipment. 

The  struggle,  before  it  began,  even  in  its 
first  planning,  was  to  be  one  of  efficiency 
against  inefficiency;  of  efficiency,  applying  to 
the  army  all  the  twelve  principles,  through  a 
new  conception  and  shaping  of  military  organ- 
ization. 


ELEMENTARY   PRINCIPLES   OF  EFFICIENCY    13 

Seconded  by  Bismarck,  von  Moltke  advised 
the  king  to  create  the  army,  even  though  the 
people  objected;  and  their  very  opposition 
served  von  Moltke,  since,  through  the  disre- 
gard of  constitutional  limitations,  the  King 
enabled  him  to  carry  into  effect  his  theories 
and  principles  without  meddlesome  and  incom- 
petent interference. 

To  begin  the  great  game,  a  quarrel  with  poor 
little  Denmark  was  started.  Austria,  Prussia's 
great  rival  in  Germany,  was  invited  to  become 
an  ally  in  a  war  against  Denmark  in  1864.  Two 
provinces,  Holstein  and  Schleswig,  were 
wrested  from  Denmark,  Prussia  occupying 
Schleswig,  Austria  occupying  Holstein.  This 
war  gave  von  Moltke  a  double  chance.  He  tried 
out  on  a  small  scale  his  own  organization,  and 
studied  the  weakness  of  the  Austrian  organiza- 
tion. In  1866  Bismarck  took  the  next  step, 
quarreled  with  Austria  about  Holstein,  and 
precipitated  war  June  14,  1866,  Prussia  pitted 
against  nearly  all  the  rest  of  Germany  and 
Austria.  Prussia  had  at  that  time  about  22,- 
000,000  inhabitants,  Austria  and  the  balance  of 
Germany  59,000,000  inhabitants.  From  a  care- 
ful study  of  the  American  civil  war,  von  Molt- 
ke had  been  learning  how  not  to  do  it.  Bis- 


14  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

marck  gave  some  of  the  smaller  German  pow- 
ers twelve  hours  to  come  to  terms,  and  then 
almost  as  rapidly  von  Moltke's  army  ate  them 
up.  Two  years  to  a  day  after  the  Battle  of 
Gettysburg  (which  occurred  thirty  months 
after  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter)  the  Prussians, 
with  225,000  men,  on  July  3,  1866,  nineteen 
days  after  the  declaration  of  war,  defeated  the 
Austrians  with  262,000  men.  In  three  weeks 
more  the  Austrians  begged  for  an  armistice, 
succeeded  by  a  peace,  which  transferred  the 
leadership  of  Germany,  held  by  Austria  for 
600  years,  to  Prussia.  The  whole  plan  being  a 
business  venture  in  empire  building,  Austria 
had  to  pay  to  Prussia  40,000,000  Thaler  (about 
$30,000,000),  the  smaller  States  paying  in  pro- 
portion; and,  as  the  seat  of  war  had  from  the 
start  been  in  Austria,  the  cost  of  occupation 
fell  in  addition  on  the  vanquished.  Prussia  an- 
nexed about  27,000  square  miles.  We  fail  to 
recall  that  any  American  industrial  corpora- 
tion ever  showed  for  the  same  length  of  time 
as  great  gross  and  net  earnings. 

Napoleon  III,  Dictator,  awoke  too  late.  Bis- 
marck and  von  Moltke  were  already  preparing 
for  the  next  step,  the  supplanting  of  the 


ELEMENTARY   PRINCIPLES   OF  EFFICIENCY   15 

French  Emperor  by  a  German  Emperor  as  the 
war-lord  of  Europe. 

On  July  4,  1870,  the  throne  of  Spain  was 
offered  to  a  German  prince,  Leopold.  This  was 
probably  part  of  Bismarck's  plan  to  provoke  a 
quarrel.  Napoleon  stamped  his  foot  once  too 
often  and  for  the  last  time.  The  French  Em- 
peror declared  war  July  19,  1870.  It  is  said 
that  von  Moltke  was  asleep  when  the  telegram 
came,  and  that  when  awakened,  he  said :  "You 
will  find  the  plan  of  campaign  in  the  third 
drawer  of  my  desk,"  and  that  he  then  turned 
over  and  went  to  sleep  again.  This  might  have 
been  true ;  for,  from  that  moment,  over  a  mil- 
lion men  in  Germany  stepped,  ate,  filled  every 
minute  of  their  time,  according  to  pre-arranged 
plan  and  schedule.  They  were  called  from 
their  homes  and  private  businesses  everywhere 
throughout  the  kingdoms  and  States;  all  the 
railroads  fell  in  line  with  all  their  equipment. 
There  was  no  confusion,  no  hysterics,  no  silly 
haste — "Ohne  Host,  Ohne  East"  The  citizens 
called,  found  their  uniforms  and  arms  ready, 
provisions  stored.  Because  the  French  plans 
contemplated  mobilization  in  nineteen  days, 
von  Moltke  had  planned  for  eighteen  days, 
knowing  that  this  would  place  the  seat  of  war 


16  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

in  France,  not  in  Germany.  The  French  actu- 
ally required  twenty-one  days  to  mobilize.  They 
were  in  time  86  per  cent  efficient,  von  Moltke 
neither  more  nor  less  than  100  per  cent  effi- 
cient. In  eleven  days,  450,000  German  soldiers 
were  mobilized;  on  August  2,  the  first  battle 
was  fought;  on  August  6 — only  eighteen  days 
after  the  declaration  of  war — one  of  the  blood- 
iest battles  occurred.  On  September  2,  forty- 
five  days  after  the  declaration,  Napoleon  and 
his  army,  beaten  at  Sedan,  surrendered  and 
passed  as  prisoners  into  Germany. 

What  is  marvelous  is  not  that  one  great  na- 
tion vanquished  another,  not  that  the  victory 
came  so  soon,  but  that  von  Moltke's  plans  were 
so  perfect  that  they  were  carried  out  to  the 
day,  in  spite  of  the  desperate  resistance  and  an- 
tagonism of  a  force  as  strong  as  his  own,  both 
nations  having  about  40,000,000  inhabitants. 

If  it  were  not  so  tragically  sad,  it  would  be 
to  laugh — to  compare  this  war,  planned  by  the 
master  organizer  of  the  last  century,  with  our 
own  inefficient,  procrastinating,  ignorantly 
managed  and  conducted  civil  war,  dragging  its 
weary  and  exhausting  length  through  nearly 
four  years,  bequeathing  a  heritage  of  hate  for 


ELEMENTARY  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY   17 

forty  years  which  it  took  a  foreign  war  to  as- 
suage— bequeathing  a  stupendous  pension  bur- 
den, nine-tenths  of  it  the  money  penalty  for  in- 
efficiency. 

In  the  American  civil  war  each  side  was  in- 
spired by  its  own  lofty  ideal — the  South  by 
State  rights,  the  North  by  hatred  of  human 
slavery;  but  neither  side  knew  a  single  one  of 
the  twelve  principles  of  efficiency,  and  so  each 
side  hopelessly  floundered. 

Von  Moltke  knew  all  the  twelve  principles  of 
efficiency,  and  for  him  war  was  a  serious  busi- 
ness undertaking,  not  a  frolic  nor  a  fizzle;  and 
because  it  was  a  business  undertaking,  Bis- 
marck charged  up  every  penny  of  its  cost  to 
France,  presented  the  bills,  and  collected  pay- 
ment, $1,000,000,000,  with  interest  added,  be- 
sides taking  two  provinces  (Alsace  and  Lo- 
raine)  as  a  fair  profit  on  a  business  venture. 

It  is  not  the  pomp  and  glory  of  that  campaign 
that  appealed  to  me  as  I  intimately  and  per- 
sonally, both  in  Germany  and  in  France,  watch- 
ed it  from  start  to  finish,  for  there  was  little 
of  either;  but  the  calm,  merciless  skill  of  the 
play  showed  me  what  principles  could  do  when 
carried  into  effect  by  a  suitable  and  competent 
organization.  It  was  not  the  German  soldiers 


18  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

who  won  the  war;  von  Moltke  would  have  won 
equally  well  had  he  applied  his  principles  to 
Italian,  Austrian,  French,  Russian,  Japanese 
or  Americans.  The  German  recruits  were  not 
enthusiastic,  and  were  below  the  European 
average  in  martial  enthusiasm  and  spirit.  It 
was  not  the  German  drill  or  tactics  that  won 
the  war — mere  methods,  both  long  ago  super- 
seded. It  was  not  the  German  equipment — 
mere  devices — that  won  the  war.  The  French 
chassepot  was  a  better  gun  than  the  German 
Zundnadel,  and  the  mitrailleuse  was  a  better 
field  piece  than  the  Germans  possessed.  It  was 
not  German  money  that  won  the  war,  for 
France  was  at  once  far  richer  and  had  far  bet- 
ter credit. 

It  was  von  Moltke's  principles  and  organiza- 
tion that  won ;  and  a  generation  later  the  same 
organization  and  principles  applied  by  a  differ- 
ent race  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe  produced 
exactly  the  same  fruit  in  very  similar  manner, 
under  other  able  men. 

Because  von  Moltke  supplemented  the  old 
type  of  military  organization,  because  he  un- 
derstood and  applied  all  the  twelve  principles, 
the  loss  of  life  and  limb  in  his  wars  was  less 
than  in  great  American  industrial  and  railroad 


ELEMENTARY  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY  19 

corporations,  earning  a  similar  amount,  and 
never  before  in  the  world's  history  was  so  great 
a  business  venture  carried  through  in  better 
manner. 

Bismarck  died  humiliated;  von  Moltke  is  no 
more ;  but  their  business  teachings  live,  and  the 
modern  German  Empire  whose  every  activity 
puts  Great  Britain  into  a  senseless  panic  is  next 
to  the  greatest  example  the  world  has  ever  seen 
of  the  result  of  modern  business  principles  ap- 
plied to  the  development  of  a  modern  world 
power. 

The  greatest  example  of  the  power  of  ration- 
al organization  and  efficiency  principles  is  not 
in  the  German  upbuilding,  but  in  the  Japanese 
actual  creation  in  a  single  generation  of  a 
great  world  power.  In  1867  Japan  was  still 
feudal.  The  merchants'  guild  and  the  thieves' 
guild  were  classed  together,  both  beneath  con- 
tempt. Her  peasantry  was  impoverished;  her 
finest  men  and  women,  feudal  dependents  with- 
out initiative.  When  it  was  still  a  treason  pun- 
ishable by  death,  a  few  of  the  Samurai  left 
Japan,  not  for  wealth  or  amusement  or  con- 
quest of  any  kind,  but  to  absorb  whatever  there 
might  be  good  in  the  Western  civilization  and 
to  bring  it  back  for  use  in  their  own  beloved 


20  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

country.  They  conspicuously,  consistently,  and 
intelligently  put  von  Moltke's  organization  into 
effect  in  upbuilding  their  fatherland,  and  also 
applied  all  the  twelve  principles,  which  they  had 
probably  independently  recognized  and  ac- 
cepted before  they  began  their  quest.  In  thirty 
years,  Japan  with  her  40,000,000  people  was 
able  to  vanquish  China  with  her  400,000,000. 
In  another  five  years,  Russia,  the  colossus  of 
the  North,  that  had  shattered  Napoleon  I — 
Russia,  the  dread  of  Great  Britain,  of  France, 
of  Germany  for  90  years — went  down  in  de- 
feat. American  sympathies  were  with  Japan, 
but  scarcely  was  the  war  over  before  the  indus- 
trial organization  of  Japan,  as  much  superior 
in  principle  to  ours  as  were  her  army  and  navy 
to  those  of  Russia,  began  to  make  us  cry  out  in 
cowardly  fear. 

It  is  not  the  flesh  and  blood  and  brains  of 
the  Japanese  that  make  them  industrially  dan- 
gerous ;  it  is  not  their  money,  for  they  are  poor, 
not  their  equipment,  for  they  have  but  little, 
not  their  material  resources,  because  they  are 
meagre.  They  are  dangerous  as  industrial  com- 
petitors because  we  are  dragging  along  under 
a  type  of  organization  that  makes  high  effi- 
ciency possible — and  they  are  not;  because  we 


ELEMENTARY   PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY  21 

have  not  even  awakened — and  they  have — to  the 
fact  that  principles  applied  by  mediocre  men 
are  more  powerful  for  good  than  the  spasmodic 
floundering  of  unusually  great  men. 

Since  life  began  on  our  planet  there  have 
always  been  two  types  of  organization,  types 
that  Mr.  F.  W.  Taylor  characterizes  as  func- 
tional and  as  military.  The  former  is  an  or- 
ganization to  build  up,  the  latter  an  organiza- 
tion to  destroy. 

Primitive  business  was  so  closely  allied  to 
raids,  filibustering,  buccaneering,  slave  trad- 
ing (not  to  omit  our  own  American  Madagascar 
trade)  that  it  was  inevitable  that  the  military 
type  should  be  extended  to  business  organiza- 
tion the  world  over — a  type  now  known  to  be 
utterly  unfitted  to  modern  business  conceptions 
and  ideals.  It  is  von  Moltke's  tremendous  gift 
to  the  world  that,  although  a  soldier  hampered 
by  tradition,  he  applied  to  the  army  the  other 
type  of  organization,  the  functional  type,  which 
ought  always  to  have  been  used  in  business. 

Because  his  only  chance  of  winning  the  great 
game  he  and  Bismarck  planned  lay  in  superior 
efficiency,  he  was  forced  to  study  all  its  under- 
lying principles,  and  he  was  equally  forced  to 
adopt  the  only  type  of  organization  that  could 


22  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

apply  the  principles;  yet  so  invisible  was  it  all 
that  even  his  keenest  enemies  saw  only  the 
familiar  cocked  hats,  epaulettes,  gold  lace,  and 
dangling  swords — failed  to  realize  that  without 
change  of  name  or  interference  with  rank,  even 
for  predatory  purposes,  the  old  predatory  or- 
ganization had  passed  away  and  been  succeeded 
by  the  functional,  upbuilding,  accomplishing  or- 
ganization. 

What  is  all  the  pride  of  achievement  of  the 
great  American  railroad  company  compared  to 
the  quiet,  fore-ordained  plans  of  von  Moltke  in 
which  no  hitch  occurred  in  the  supreme  test? 

What  is  the  greatest  American  corporation 
as  a  working  force,  compared  to  the  perfect 
organization  of  von  Moltke,  the  perfect  organ- 
ization of  the  small  group  of  Japanese  leaders 
who  have  made  Japan  a  great  world  power? 

The  British,  French,  German  and  American 
managers  of  the  great  industrial  corporations 
and  railroads  are  men  of  great  force  of  char- 
acter, of  stupendous  ability,  of  untiring  energy, 
devoted  to  the  interests  entrusted  to  them ;  but 
because  they  know  only  empirically  what  the 
principles  of  efficiency  are,  because  even  em- 
pirically they  apply  these  principles  only  spas- 
modically, the  plants  and  railroads  whose  well- 


ELEMENTARY  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY  23 

being  they  are  so  eager  to  further,  are  operated 
wastefully  beyond  belief.  The  losses  in  Amer- 
ican railroad  operation  alone  run  to  a  million 
dollars  a  day — losses  preventable  through  the 
recognition,  acceptance,  and  persistent  applica- 
tion of  efficiency  principles;  losses  as  prevent- 
able as  yellow-fever  deaths  at  Panama,  or  as 
fuel  wastes  if  well-designed  engines,  boilers 
and  furnaces  are  used. 

Efficiency,  like  hygiene,  is  a  state,  an  ideal, 
not  a  method ;  but  in  America  we  have  sought 
our  salvation  in  methods. 

American  industrial'  organization,  even  when 
it  has  good  methods,  cannot  use  them,  because 
the  organization,  inherited  from  antiquated 
British  models,  is  so  defective  in  theory  as  to 
make  an  application  of  the  principles  as  well 
as  of  good  methods  impossible. 

In  this  chapter  we  have  attempted  to  show 
that  conditions  of  extreme  inefficiency  in  shops 
as  well  as  in  empires  can  be  converted  in  a 
very  short  time  into  states  of  high  efficiency; 
that  the  prime  instruments  for  efficiency  in  the 
examples  cited  were  not  men,  materials,  money, 
machines,  and  methods,  but  theories  of  organ- 
ization and  principles;  that  inefficiency  pre- 


24  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

vails  in  all  American  activities  because  the  type 
of  organization  is  one  that  does  not  lend  itself 
to  the  application  of  efficiency  principles;  that 
the  hope  of  rapid  improvement  lies  in  so 
amending  or  supplementing  the  usual  type  of 
organization  as  to  make  it  possible  to  apply 
efficiency  principles. 

The  next  chapter  will  outline  and  contrast 
the  two  types  of  organization,  and  will  show 
why  one  is  not  adapted  to  secure  efficiency,  and 
why  the  other  one  is- 


II 

THE  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION  THROUGH 
WHICH  EFFICIENCY  IS  ATTAINED. 


Go  to  the  ant,  thou  sluggard;  consider  her  ways, 
and  be  wise. — Proverbs,  6,  6. 

Consider  the  lilies  how  they  grow:  they  toil  not, 
they  spin  not;  and  yet  I  say  unto  you,  that  Solomon  in 
all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these. — St. 
Luke,  12,  27. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION  THROUGH 
WHICH  EFFICIENCY  IS  ATTAINED 

THE  poor  white  trash  of  the  southern 
States  and  the  listless  negroes  have 
long  been  a  by- word,  but  we  suddenly 
find  out  that  all  these  people,  white  and  dark, 
are  afflicted  with  a  parasite,  the  hook-worm, 
which   saps    their   vitality,    internally   slowly 
bleeds  their  strength  away. 

The  remedy  is  not  schools,  nor  churches,  nor 
the  suppression  of  the  saloon,  nor  the  stern- 
ness of  the  task-master — all  excellent  devices; 
the  remedy  is  the  elimination  of  the  parasite. 
After  this  initial  betterment,  the  principles  of 
education,  of  religion,  of  temperance,  of  stimu- 
lus, may  be  confidently  applied. 

American  organization  for  operation,  wheth- 
er governmental  (army,  navy,  civil),  whether 
state  or  municipal,  whether  for  land-railroads 
or  ocean-steamboats,  whether  educational  or 

27 


28  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

religious,  whether  industrial  or  commercial, 
proves  on  investigation  to  be  inefficient,  often 
disgracefully  so,  the  efficiency  of  the  output  of 
men  of  militia  age  of  the  country  as  a  whole 
being  not  more  than  5  per  cent,  the  efficiency 
of  use  of  materials  being  not  more  than  60  per 
cent,  the  efficiency  of  equipment  facilities  not 
averaging  30  per  cent.  These  inefficiency  state- 
ments can  be  verified  from  the  facts,  by  any 
competent  experts,  as  readily  as  an  assayer  can 
duplicate  the  assay  of  an  ore  sample. 

Our  material  resources  are  unsurpassed,  our 
workers  are  intelligent,  ambitious,  versatile, 
our  equipment,  from  farm  lands  to  office  build- 
ings, from  typewriters  up  to  Mallet  compounds 
and  down  again  to  telephones,  is  lavish;  yet  it 
is  all  depreciated  by  an  equally  stupendous  in- 
efficiency. The  principles  of  efficiency  are  sim- 
ple, are  plain,  are  elementary;  they  have  been 
accepted  and  practiced  empirically  for  a  few 
million  years  since  life  began  on  our  planet; 
yet  in  modern  America,  we  flounder  in  our  pro- 
ductive operations,  as  hopelessly  put  back  in 
the  running  as  the  hook-worm  victim  in  the 
South. 

What  is  this  insidious  disease  that  wastes  our 
resources  of  materials,  of  human  potentiality, 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION          29 

of  equipment — that  prevents  the  application  of 
efficiency  principles  even  as  the  existence  of  the 
hook-worm  prevents  the  application  of  prin- 
ciples of  human  well-being? 

The  industrial  hook-worm  disease  is  defec- 
tive organization. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  this  book  I  have  shown 
that  a  certain  type  of  organization,  whether  ap- 
plied to  the  development  of  empires  or  to  in- 
dustrial shops,  produces  very  high  efficiency. 
There  is  another  type  of  organization,  unfor- 
tunately the  one  almost  universally  adopted  in 
our  collective  activities,  which  is  incapable  of 
applying  efficiency  principles;  and  the  use  of 
this  type  is  responsible  for  much  of  modern  in- 
efficiency and  waste.  An  air  compressor,  forc- 
ing hot  and  squealing  air,  and  a  vacuum  pump 
softly  coaxing  cooling  air,  are  one  and  the 
same  machine  working  on  the  same  cycle  in 
opposite  directions.  With  a  few  simple  changes 
the  compressor  can  be  changed  into  the  vacuum 
pump.  So  with  a  few  very  small  changes  a 
disastrous  form  of  organization  can  be  turned 
into  a  beneficent  form.  We  shall  try  to  make 
clear  the  difference  between  these  two  forms  of 
organization,  to  show  why  it  is  impossible  for 
one  type  to  apply  efficiency  principles  and  im- 


30  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

possible  for  the  other  type  not  to  apply  them, 
to  show  that  from  the  beginning  of  life  the 
efficient  type  has  always  produced  better  re- 
sults, and  that  a  long  step  forward  toward 
conservation  will  have  been  taken  when  we 
adopt  for  our  collective  life  the  superior  type; 
to  show  that  the  change  from  one  type  to  an- 
other is  radical  only  in  theory,  not  in  operation 
— not  at  all  such  a  change  as  substituting  elec- 
tric traction  for  steam  traction,  a  prohibitively 
costly  undertaking;  much  more  such  a  change 
as  substituting  a  north  window  with  its  mellow 
diffused  light  for  a  south  window  with  its  fierce 
glare  and  shadows. 

In  primitive  times,  with  that  fatuity  and  per- 
versity which  unaccountably  characterizes  so 
much  that  is  human,  we  turned  to  the  left  when 
we  ought  have  turned  to  the  right.  Having  two 
forms  of  organization  to  choose  from — only 
two,  the  destructively  offensive  and  the  con- 
structively defensive — we  chose  for  our  indus- 
trial organization  the  destructively  offensive 
type,  and  it  does  not  work  out,  never  can  and 
never  will;  while  we  ought  to  have  chosen  the 
constructively  defensive  type  of  organization, 
alone  suited  to  the  processes  of  productive  up- 
building. 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION          31 

The  two  types  of  organization  are  as  old  as 
life,  are  therefore  far  older  than  humanity,  and 
we  have  had  to  accept  them  as  part  of  our  in- 
heritance just  as  we  accept  the  necessity  of  as- 
similation, of  elimination,  of  reproduction,  of 
breathing.  But  there  is  no  more  reason  in  ad- 
hering industrially  to  the  destructive  type  of 
organization,  since  we  have  learned  that  the 
other  is  better,  than  there  is  in  adhering  to 
pack  teams  and  ox  carts  after  the  railroad  and 
automobile  have  been  perfected. 

To  bring  out  clearly  the  radical  differences 
between  the  two  types  of  organization,  in 
spirit,  in  effectiveness,  and  in  methods,  we 
select  two  primitive  examples,  one  a  plant  and 
the  other  an  animal.  The  plant  trusts  to  the 
generous,  often  enthusiastic,  co-operation  of 
forces  outside  of  itself  and  it  therefore  draws 
strength  of  wide  and  unlimited  range.  The 
mammal  trusts  to  the  occasional,  often  grudg- 
ing, co-operation  of  powers  identical  in  kind 
with  its  own,  therefore  of  limited  scope.  The 
pathfinder  through  primeval  forest  is  im- 
pressed with  the  luxuriant  wealth  and  profu- 
sion of  plant  life — trees,  at  their  best,  400  feet 
high;  is  impressed  with  the  comparative 
paucity,  pettiness,  transitoriness  of  animal  life, 


\ 


32  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

whose  largest  jungle  representative  is  the  ele- 
phant, twelve  feet  high  and  living  at  most  a 
few  hundred  years.  Plants  trust  all  nature 
and  draw  help  from  everywhere ;  animals  trust 
none  but  their  kind  and  grow  through  destruc- 
tion. Even  that  type  of  all  that  is  silly  and 
innocent,  the  sheep,  will  destroy  in  a  few  years 
a  millennial  pasture  range. 

The  wild  rose-bush  exemplifies  the  defensive, 
upbuilding  type,  of  organization.  The  rose 
stems  are  covered  with  sharp  thorns  so  that 
the  delicate  flowers  may  not  be  plucked  and 
destroyed  by  wanton  creatures  who  might  just 
as  well  be  browsing  on  grass  or  leaves,  but  the 
color  and  perfume  of  the  blossoms  attract  the 
bees,  beetles,  butterflies,  and  moths  who  in  re- 
turn for  an  efficiency  reward,  the  honey,  cross- 
fertilize  the  plants.  The  petals  fade  and  drop, 
the  seed  receptacle,  an  inconspicuous  green, 
swells  and  grows.  When  ripe,  the  leraves  that 
hid  it  fall  away;  it  appears  red,  a  tempting 
rose-apple  to  bird  that  plucks  it,  to  mammal 
that  finds  it  dropped,  but  the  cradle  of  the 
seeds  is  so  protected  that  the  rose  babies  escape 
to  grow  and  flourish  where  they  fall.  The  rose 
relies  on  defensive  up-building  organization, 
calling  on  water,  air,  warmth  and  light,  earth, 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION          33 

insects,  birds  and  mammals,  each  taking  a 
part,  all  helping  the  rose  to  dot  the  western 
prairies,  to  deck  the  roadsides  and  moors  of 
the  New  England  seaboard,  to  blanket  the 
lovely  North  Pacific  coast. 

Roosevelt  gives  us  the  other  picture  when 
he  describes  the  African  baboons  who  are  or- 
ganized for  offense,  for  destruction: 

The  baboons  were  very  numerous  around  this  camp, 
living  both  among  the  rocks  and  in  the  tree-tops.  They 
are  hideous  creatures.  They  ravage  the  crops  and 
tear  open  new-born  lambs  to  get  at  the  milk  inside 
them;  and  where  the  natives  are  timid  and  unable  to 
harm  them  they  bacome  wantonly  savage  and  aggres- 
sive and  attack  and  even  kill  women  and  children.  In 
Uganda,  Cunninghame  had  once  been  asked  by  a  native 
chief  to  come  to  his  village  and  shoot  the  baboons,  as 
they  had  just  killed  two  women,  badly  bitten  several 
children,  and  caused  such  a  reign  of  terror  that  the 
village  would  be  abandoned  if  they  were  not  killed  or 
intimidated.  He  himself  saw  the  torn  and  mutilated 
bodies  of  the  dead  women;  and  he  stayed  in  the  village 
a  week,  shooting  so  many  baboons  that  the  remainder 
were  thoroughly  cowed. 

Baboons  do  not  act  singly,  but  in  bands 
with  leaders,  with  sentinels  posted.  Baboons, 
wolves,  wild  dogs  and  primitive  man  are  thor- 
oughly organized  for  offense  and  destruction. 
It  is  because  the  object  is  offense  and  destruc- 
tion that  evil  characteristics  are  most  promi- 
nent— arbitrariness,  irresponsible  exercise  of 
power,  harshness,  cruelty,  with  anarchy  all 
along  the  line. 


34  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

Some  strong  male,  differing  not  in  kind  but 
merely  in  degree  from  his  fellows,  has  fought 
his  way  to  the  top,  is  given  allegiance,  based 
partly  on  fear,  partly  on  self-interest.  He  dele- 
gates power,  or  each  lower  rank  of  followers 
usurp  power,  and  this  results  in  anarchy  all 
along  the  line.  Are  we  now  writing  of  the 
African  baboons,  of  the  wolf  pack,  of  the 
paleolithic  war  chief,  of  the  neolithic  hunt- 
ing, foraging,  plundering,  filibustering  chief, 
of  the  enterprising  New  York  Madagas- 
car trader,  of  the  respectable  Rhode  Is- 
land slaver  and  rum  trader  and  privateer;  or 
are  we  writing  of  Roosevelt's  land  and  marine 
experiences  as  a  Rough  Rider  with  our  army 
and  navy;  or  are  we  writing  of  the  shops  of 
the  great  industrial  incorporations,  of  the 
operation  and  maintenance  of  our  railroads? 
It  is  all  one  and  the  same  thing,  as  they  all  are 
victims  of  a  common  type  of  organization  rest- 
ing on  the  same  principles — individual  arbi- 
trariness at  the  top,  usurped  and  delegated 
power  down  the  line,  anarchy  everywhere. 

Modern  men  have  lost  the  fangs  and  the 
cruel  hands  of  the  baboon;  in  them  also  his 
savage,  cruel  instincts  are  softened.  Modern 
sea  captains  are  not  such  monsters  of  cruelty 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION         35 

as  Henry  Morgan,  modern  generals  are  not  as 
ruthless  as  Caesar,  Attilla,  Jenghis  Khan,  Tilly, 
or  even  Napoleon.  Men,  thoroughly  good,  con- 
servative, upright  men,  with  every  great  up- 
building instinct,  are  happily  at  the  head  of 
most  of  our  great  institutions;  they  are  in- 
finitely better  than  the  destructive  organiza- 
tions through  which  they  are  compelled  to 
work,  knowing  no  other;  but  the  old  danger  is 
always  latent.  We  who  know  could  fill  volumes 
with  modern  illustrations  of  the  ever  out- 
cropping evils  due  to  the  destructive  type  of 
organization. 

Let  all  who  wish  to  become  acquainted  with 
a  detailed  story  of  humiliating  inefficiency,  due 
to  arbitrary  incompetence — at  Washington, 
mitigated  by  usurped  power  and  anarchy  every, 
where,  read  of  the  difficulties  with  which  a 
great  and  resourceful  leader  had  to  cope  even 
in  the  oldest  and  most  perfected  type  of  offen- 
sive organization,  the  military: 

The  battalion  chief  of  a  newly  raised  American  regi- 
ment, when  striving  to  get  into  a  war  which  the 
American  people  have  undertaken  with  buoyant  and 
light-hearted  indifference  to  detail,  has  positively  un- 
limited opportunity  for  the  display  of  "individual  ini- 
tiative." .  .  .  .  .  If  such  a  battalion  chief  wants 
to  get  anything  or  go  anywhere  he  must  do  it  by 
exercising  every  pound  of  resource,  inventiveness,  and 
audacity  ^he  possesses.  The  help,  advice,  and  superin- 


36  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

tendence  he  gets  from  outside  will  be  of  the  most  gen- 
eral, not  to  say  superficial,  character.  He  will  have  to 
fight  for  his  rifles  and  his  tents  and  his  clothes.  He 
will  have  to  keep  his  men  healthy,  largely  by  the  light 
that  nature  has  given  him.  When  he  wishes  to  embark 
his  regiment,  he  will  have  to  fight  for  his  railway  cars 
exactly  as  he  fights  for  his  transport  when  it  comes  to 
going  across  the  sea;  and  on  his  journey  his  men  will 
or  will  not  have  food,  and  his  horses  will  or  will  not 
have  water  and  hay,  and  the  trains  will  or  will  not 
make  connections,  in  exact  correspondence  to  the 
energy  and  success  of  his  own  efforts  to  keep  things 
moving  straight. 

It  was  on  Sunday,  May  29,  at  San  Antonio,  Texas, 
that  we  marched  out  of  our  hot,  windy,  dusty  camp 
to  take  the  cars  for  Tampa.  There  were  no  proper 
facilities  for  getting  the  horses  on  or  off  the  cars,  or 
for  feeding  or  watering  them;  and  there  was  endless 
confusion  and  delay  among  the  railway  officials.  The 
railway  had  promised  us  a  forty-eight  hours'  trip,  but 
it  was  four  days  later  that  we  disembarked,  in  a  per- 
fect welter  of  confusion.  Everything  connected  with 
both  military  and  railroad  matters  was  in  an  almost 
inextricable  tangle.  There  was  no  one  to  meet  us  or 
tell  us  where  we  were  to  camp,  and  no  one  to  issue 
us  food  for  the  first  twenty-four  hours;  while  the  rail- 
road people  unloaded  us  wherever  they  pleased,  or 
rather  wherever  the  jam  of  all  kinds  of  trains  rendered 
it  possible.  We  had  to  buy  the  men  food  out  of  our 
own  pockets,  and  to  seize  wagons  in  order  to  get  our 
spare  baggage  taken  to  the  camping  ground  which  we 
at  last  found  had  been  allotted  to  us 

It  was  the  evening  of  June  7  when  we  suddenly  re- 
ceived orders  that  the  expedition  was  to  start  from 
Port  Tampa,  nine  miles  distant  by  rail,  at  daybreak 
the  following  morning;  and  that  if  we  were  not  aboard 
our  transport  by  that  time  we  could  not  go.  We  had 
no  intention  of  getting  left,  and  prepared  at  once  for 
the  scramble  which  was  evidently  about  to  take  place. 
As  the  number  and  capacity  of  the  transports  were 
known,  or  ought  to  have  been  known,  and  as  the 
number  and  size  of  the  regiments  to  go  were  also 
known,  the  task  of  allotting  each  regiment  or  fraction 
of  a  regiment  to  its  proper  transport,  and  arranging 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION  37 

that  the  regiments  and  the  transports  should  meet  in 
due  order  on  the  dock,  ought  not  to  have  been  difficult. 
However,  no  arrangements  were  made  in  advance;  and 
we  were  allowed  to  shove  and  hustle  for  ourselves  as 
best  we  could,  on  much  the  same  principles  that  had 
governed  our  preparations  hitherto. 

We  were  ordered  to  be  at  a  certain  track  with  all 
our  baggage  at  midnight,  there  to  take  a  train  for 
Port  Tampa.  At  the  appointed  time  we  turned  up, 

but  the  train  did  not 

We  now  and  then  came  across  a  Brigadier-General, 
or  even  a  Major-General;  but  nobody  knew  anything. 
Some  regiments  got  aboard  the  trains  and  some  did 

not At  six  o'clock  some  coal  cars  came 

by  and  these  we  seized.  By  various  arguments  we 
persuaded  the  engineer  in  charge  of  the  train  to  back 

us  down  the  nine  miles  to  Port  Tampa 

The  trains  were  unloading  wherever  they  happened 
to  be,  no  attention  whatever  being  paid  to  the  possible 
position  of  the  transport  on  which  the  soldiers  were  to 
go.  Colonel  Wood  and  I  had  jumped  off  and  started 
on  a  hunt,  which  soon  convinced  us  that  we  had  our 
work  cut  out  if  we  were  to  get  a  transport  at  all. 
From  the  highest  General  down,  nobody  could  tell  us 
where  to  go  to  find  out  what  transport  we  were  to 

have The  quay  was  crammed  with  some 

ten-thousand  men,  most  of  whom  were  working  at  cross 

purposes 

The  military  attaches  came  out  to  look  on — English, 
German,  Russian,  French  and  Japanese. 

We  were  allotted  a  transport — the  "Yucatan."  She 
was  out  in  midstream,  so  Wood  seized  a  stray  launch 
and  boarded  her.  At  the  same  time  I  happened  to  find 
out  that  she  had  previously  been  allotted  to  two  other 
regiments  —  the  Second  Regular  Infantry  and  the 
Seventy-first  New  York  Volunteers,  which  latter  regi- 
ment alone  contained  more  men  than  could  be  put 
aboard  her.  Accordingly  I  ran  at  full  speed  to  our 
train;  and,  leaving  a  strong  guard  with  the  baggage, 
I  double-quicked  the  rest  of  the  regiment  up  to  the 
boat,  just  in  time  to  board  her  as  she  came  into  the 
quay,  and  then  to  hold  her  against  the  Second  Regu- 
lars and  the  Seventy-first,  who  had  arrived  a  little  too 


38  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

late,  being  a  shade  less  ready  than  we  were  in  the 
matter  of  individual  initiative.  There  was  a  good  deal 
of  expostulation,  but  we  had  possession;  and  as  the 
ship  could  not  contain  half  of  the  men  who  had  been 
told  to  go  aboard  her,  the  Seventy-first  went  away  as 

did  all  but  four  companies  of  the  Second 

The  transport  was  overloaded,  the  men  being  packed 
like  sardines,  not  only  below  but  upon  the  decks;  so 
that  at  night  it  was  only  possible  to  walk  about  by 
continually  stepping  over  the  bodies  of  the  sleepers. 
The  travel  ration  which  had  been  issued  to  the  men 
for  the  voyage  was  not  sufficient,  because  the  meat 

was  very  bad  indeed The  soldiers  were 

issued  horrible  stuff  called  "canned  fresh  beef."  There 
was  no  salt  in  it.  At  the  best  it  was  stringy  and 
tasteless;  at  the  worst  it  was  nauseating.  Not  one- 
fourth  of  it  was  ever  eaten  at  all,  even  when  the  men 
became  very  hungry.  There  were  no  facilities  for  the 
men  to  cook  anything.  There  was  no  ice  for  them;  the 
water  was  not  good;  and  they  had  no  fresh  meat  or 
fresh  vegetables 

By  next  morning  came  the  news  that  the  order  to 
sail  had  been  countermanded,  and  that  we  were  to  stay 
where  we  were  for  the  time  being.  What  this  meant 
none  of  us  could  understand.  It  turned  out  later  to  be 
due  to  the  blunder  of  a  naval  officer 

Meanwhile  the  troop  ships,  packed  tight  with  their 
living  freight,  sweltered  in  the  burning  heat  of  Tampa 
Harbor.  There  was  nothing  whatever  for  the  men  to 

do,  space  being  too  cramped  for  amusement 

So  we  lay  for  nearly  a  week,  the  vessels  swinging 
around  on  their  anchor  chains,  while  the  hot  water 
of  the  bay  flowed  to  and  fro  around  them  and  the  sun 
burned  overhead.  At  last,  on  the  evening  of  June  13, 

we  received  the  welcome  order  to  start 

We  knew  not  whither  we  were  bound,  nor  what  we 

were  to  do We  had  a  good  deal  of  trouble 

with  the  transports One   of  them  was 

towing  a  schooner,  and  another  a  scow 

We  rolled  and  wallowed  in  the  sea-way,  waiting  un- 
til a  decision  was  reached  as  to  where  we  should  land. 
On  the  morning  of  June  22  the  welcome  order  for  land- 
ing came. 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION          biJ 

We  did  the  landing  as  we  had  done  everything  else — 
that  is,  in  a  scramble,  each  commander   shifting  for 

himself There    were    no    facilities    for 

landing,  and  the  fleet  did  not  have  a  quarter  the 
number  of  boats  it  should  have  had  for  the  purpose. 

Meanwhile,  from  another  transport,  our 

horses  were  being  landed,  together  with  the  mules,  by 
the  simple  process  of  throwing  them  overboard  and 

letting  them  swim  ashore,  if  they  could 

One  of  my  horses  was  drowned.  The  other,  Little 
Texas,  got  ashore  all  right.  While  I  was  superintend- 
ing the  landing  at  the  ruined  dock  with  Bucky  O'Neill, 
a  boatful  of  colored  infantry  soldiers  capsized,  and 
two  of  the  men  went  to  the  bottom;  Bucky  O'Neill 
plunging  in,  in  full  uniform,  to  save  them,  but  in 
vain. — Abbreviated  from  ROOSEVELT'S  Rough  Riders, 
Pages  47-71. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  has  always  been  the  apostle  of 
strenuousness.  Strenuousness  and  efficiency 
are  not  only  not  the  same,  but  are  antagonistic. 
To  be  strenuous  is  to  put  forth  greater  effort; 
to  be  efficient  is  to  put  forth  less  effort.  To 
walk  four  miles  an  hour  is  efficient,  but  not 
strenuous ;  to  hustle  along  at  six  miles  an  hour 
is  exceedingly  strenuous,  but  not  efficient,  since 
an  hour  or  two  of  the  pace  would  exhaust  the 
walker  and  indeed  incapacitate  him  for  further 
progress. 

To  increase  speed  by  using  a  bicycle  is  effi- 
cient. Six  miles  an  hour  on  a  bicycle  is  so 
easy  that  it  is  neither  strenuous  nor  efficient. 
Ten  miles  an  hour  is  efficient  but  not  strenu- 
ous; twenty  miles  an  hour  is  exceedingly 


40  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

strenuous  but  not  efficient,  since  it  overtaxes 
the  man. 

The  barn-yard  rooster  when  chased  from  his 
dung-hill  flutters  strenuously  but  not  efficient- 
ly. The  eagle  soaring  for  hours  in  the  sunlight 
without  flapping  a  wing  is  efficient  but  not 
strenuous.  Efficiency  brings  about  greater  re- 
sults with  lessened  effort ;  strenuousness  brings 
about  greater  results  with  abnormally  greater 
effort.  Piece  rates  are  based  on  the  theory  of 
strenuousness;  standard  times  and  bonus  are 
based  on  the  theory  of  efficiency.  The  differ- 
ence between  the  two  is  philosophic  and  physio- 
logical. Piece  rates  are  a  reversion  to  savage 
standards;  standard  times  are  a  step  into  the 
future,  even  as  the  scheduled  train  is  an  ad- 
vance over  the  bringing  of  the  news  to  Aix,  or 
Paul  Revere's  or  Sheridan's  ride. 

The  efficiency  engineer  meets  everywhere  the 
inefficiencies,  losses,  ravages,  disasters,  ma- 
terial and  moral,  always  latent,  often  active  in 
wrong  organization.  To  illustrate  by  instances 
from  experience: 

The  able  president  of  a  two-hundred-million- 
dollar  corporation,  hearing  that  piece  work  re- 
sulted in  greater  output  than  day  work,  ordered 
piece  rates  put  in  and  made  the  basis  of  re- 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION          41 

numeration  on  a  few  days'  notice.  A  disastrous 
strike  followed,  costing  the  corporation  $2,000,- 
000,  the  community  being  made  to  suffer  from 
violence  of  all  kinds  by  strikers  and  their  sym- 
pathizers, by  officials  and  their  hirelings.  This 
president  would  not  have  presumed  to  design  a 
steam  engine,  perhaps  not  have  presumed  with- 
out advice  to  select  a  typewriter ;  yet  he  rashly 
acted  on  two  of  the  most  delicate  problems  that 
confront  any  modern  corporation,  wages  and 
efficiency  reward.  He  did  not  know  that  effi- 
ciency reward  ought  to  be  preceded  by  the 
careful,  systematic,  and  expert  application  of 
eleven  other  principles,  of  which  "Wages"  is  a 
minor  element  of  one ;  he  did  not  know  that  the 
eleven  anterior  principles  were  largely  lacking 
in  application  in  his  company,  and  that  condi- 
tions were  not  ripe  for  any  form. of  efficiency 
reward ;  he  did  not  know  that  even  if  his  com- 
pany had  been  fitted  to  adopt  the  principle  of 
efficiency  reward,  it  remained  a  momentous 
question  as  to  what  form  should  be  used,  piece 
rates  being  probably  the  last  that  a  competent 
expert  would  recommend.  He  was  not  to 
blame.  He  had  to  make  a  decision,  and  he  did 
not  have  an  organization  around  him,  over  him, 
under  him,  that  automatically  prevented  this 


42  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

mistake,  equally  disastrous  to  his  company,  to 
his  employees,  and  to  himself. 

The  general  superintendent  of  one  of  the 
of  the  largest  American  industrial  plants,  tre- 
mendously successful  through  his  great  genius, 
power,  ability,  told  me  with  pride  that  for  five 
months  he  had  refused  to  allow  any  shop  tools 
or  supplies  to  be  bought.  He  boasted  that  a 
smith  foreman,  failing  to  secure  on  requisition 
flatter  steel,  had  made  flatters  out  of  Krupp 
steel  tires  which  he  appropriated  for  this  pur- 
pose. The  tool  account  came  down,  it  is  true, 
but  at  what  cost  in  man-wasted  time  with 
smooth  files,  and  all  other  man-supply  deficien- 
cies— in  diminished  output  from  machine- 
wasted  time  due  to  defective  belts  and  all  other 
machine-supply  deficiencies? 

Industrial  arbitrariness  by  the  superinten- 
dent, delegated  and  usurped  power  in  the  fore- 
man, anarchy  all  along  the  line ! 

There  are  more  disgraceful  examples  that 
could  be  cited  in  which  foremen  plundered  and 
swindled  the  men  under  them,  debauched  wives, 
violated  homes,  because  the  power  to  employ 
and  discharge,  to  promote  and  reduce,  to  aug- 
ment and  to  lower  compensation,  had  been 
delegated  to  them.  American  trade  unionism, 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION          43 

with  all  its  imported  tenets  of  inefficiency,  is 
in  large  part  a  justifiable  collectivism,  alone 
able  to  cope  with  some  of  the  worst  outrages  to 
which  individual  wage  earners  have  been  ex- 
posed; and  it  is  pathetic  that  these  same  wage 
earners,  in  resorting  to  unionism,  have  known 
no  better  than  to  adopt  all  the  worst  character- 
istics of  that  form  of  organization  against  the 
evils  of  which  they  were  rebelling. 

A  high  American  railroad  official  of  great 
and  long  experience  told  me  that  no  grievance 
committee  of  wage  earners  had  ever  come  to 
him  with  what  seemed  unreasonable  and  unfair 
demands  that  he  had  not  been  able  to  find  as 
the  original  incentive  to  its  action  the  arbitrary 
injustice  and  tyranny  of  some  insignificant 
local  official,  foreman,  or  boss. 

I  have  intimately  watched  the  inception, 
progress,  and  end  of  three  railroad  strikes. 
Twice  they  were  precipitated  by  the  arbitrary 
action  of  irresponsible,  yet  conscientious  and 
able  railroad  officials.  The  money  lost  in  these 
two  strikes  by  the  employing  companies  was 
sufficient  to  establish  efficiency  operation  on 
every  American  railroad,  and  under  efficiency 
operation  strikes  are  inconceivable.  The  third 
road  won  its  strike  hands  down  because  it  spent 


44  THE    PRINCIPLES    OF   EFFICIENCY 

for  defense,  preparation,  and  mitigation  of 
evils,  one-tenth  the  sums  necessary  in  the  other 
cases  for  war  and  destruction. 

In  American  organization  a  successful  man 
becomes  president,  he  selects  his  staff,  his  cab- 
inet and — he  puts  it  up  to  them.  Each  in  turn 
selects  his  staff  of  managers  and — puts  it  up 
to  them.  The  manager  selects  his  superinten- 
dents, and  passes  the  power  and  responsibility 
on  to  them.  The  superintendent  selects  fore- 
men, and  delegates  to  them  the  power  "to  make 
good."  The  foremen  select  their  workmen,  and 
transmit  to  them  the  power  to  do  the  thing  the 
president  really  wanted  done. 

The  man  at  the  bottom,  with  the  least  spare 
time  to  plan,  the  least  training,  the  least  com- 
pensation, runs  the  whole  affair.  This  is  the 
type — so  usual,  so  universal,  that  many  will 
show  amazement  that  it  is  questioned.  It  is 
the  baboon,  the  wolf-pack,  type  of  organization 
and  it  is  all  wrong. 

The  wild  rose,  relying  on  allies  outside  of 
itself  to  aid  it,  has  developed  and  flourished 
under  the  defensive  up-building  type  of  organ- 
ization, but  we  need  not  go  so  far  afield.  Plant 
life  has  no  monopoly  of  upbuilding  organiza- 
tion. Among  the  baboons,  among  the  wolves, 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION          45 

among-  the  foxes,  among  men,  the  defensive, 
the  up-building  type  of  organization  also  exists, 
but  men  have  not  applied  it  to  business.  In 
his  family  life,  and  he  is  a  most  worthy  hus- 
band and  father,  the  fox  imposes  maternity  on 
his  vixen  companion.  This  is  no  delegation  of 
power,  for  he  is  incapable  of  maternity.  He 
imposes  a  duty  and  assumes  a  tremendous  re- 
sponsibility, and — he  gives  the  balance  of  his 
life  to  doing  his  part  that  she  may  make  a  full 
success  of  what  he  imposed  on  her.  He  pro- 
tects, he  provides,  he  feeds  her,  he  watches 
over  her.  The  organization  is  one  for  defense 
and  up-building,  and  without  it  life  would 
perish  from  our  planet.  The  vixen  in  turn  im- 
poses on  her  young  the  greater  duty  of  life, 
but  in  so  doing  she  assumes  a  crushing  burden 
of  obligation  toward  her  offspring.  She  feeds 
them  from  her  own  body,  she  watches  over 
them,  she  trains  them  and  teaches  them,  and, 
if  need  be,  gives  her  life  for  them.  She  dele- 
gated nothing,  but  she  imposed  obligation  and 
she  gives  the  balance  of  her  life  that  they  may 
make  a  full  success  of  what  she  unwittingly  im- 
posed on  them. 

That  the  race  of  foxes  may  endure  forever, 
the  vixen  exists  for  the  sake  of  her  babies,  not 


46  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

they  for  her ;  the  father  fox  exists  for  the  sake 
of  the  vixen  and  her  special  task,  not  she  for 
him. 

There  is,  of  course,  authority  running  from 
top  to  bottom,  authority  commensurate  with 
responsibility,  greater  and  stronger  authority 
than  that  inspired  by  fear,  but  though  the  cubs 
obey  the  mother  and  the  father,  the  organiza- 
tion is  one  of  defense,  of  up-building. 

This  is  the  type  of  organization  von  Moltke 
imposed  on  a  Prussian  army.  He  left  appar- 
ently intact  the  predatory  form ;  but  he  created 
staff,  and  though  it  was  an  elementary  and  in- 
adequate staff  it  made  his  stupendous  achieve- 
ments possible.  Von  Moltke  realized  that  there 
were  natural  laws  superior  to  any  general  or- 
ders of  his,  that  the  general  orders  would  be 
effective  in  exact  degree  as  they  utilized  natural 
laws  to  the  best  advantage.  He  therefore 
created  a  general  staff  of  specialists,  officers, 
students,  experts,  acquainted  with  and  skilled 
in  the  knowledge  of  general  laws,  and  it  was 
with  their  knowledge  that  he  outfitted  his 
armies,  planned  his  campaigns,  and  executed 
Tiis  designs.  The  plans  of  his  general  staff  pre- 
vented the  issuance  of  orders  contrary  to  the 
laws  of  nature;  it  stimulated  the  issuance  of 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION          47 

orders  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  nature; 
just  as  effectually  as  wheel  flanges  keep  loco- 
motives on  the  track  and  as  steel  rails  lessen 
wheel  friction,  so  there  was  elimination  of  fu- 
tile waste,  the  promotion  of  efficiency.  It  re- 
quired no  revolution,  no  tearing  down  of  what 
was,  to  change  offense  and  destruction  into  de- 
fense and  construction.  Bismarck's  main  aim 
was  not  to  conquer  Austria  or  France,  but  to 
build  up  Prussia  and  Germany,  and  an  army 
with  a  new  organization  was  the  instrument. 

The  stone,  spear  or  sword  was  distinctly  an 
adjunct  to  primitive  man,  but  just  as  distinctly 
modern  man  is  an  adjunct  to  the  machine  tool, 
to  the  locomotive,  to  the  twelve-inch  gun.  We 
would  use  them  automatically  if  we  could,  and 
dispense  with  the  man,  even  as  we  now  drill 
oil  and  gas  wells  two-thousand  feet  deep  and 
dispense  with  a  well  digger.  Having  reversed 
the  relation  of  worker  to  his  tools,  we  must  of 
necessity  reverse  the  relation  of  officer  to  pri- 
vate, of  official  to  employee;  we  must  reverse 
the  administrative  cycle.  The  employee  no 
longer  exists  merely  to  aggrandize  and  extend 
the  personality  of  the  employer,  but  the  latter 
exists  solely  to  make  effective  the  totally  dif- 
ferent function  of  the  employee. 


48  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

Modern  industry  as  distinguished  from 
primitive  industry  is  run  with  equipment.  It 
is  the  locomotive  that  pulls  the  train,  the  car 
that  carries  the  freight.  They  are  there  for 
this  purpose ;  this  is  the  inspiration  of  their  de- 
sign, construction,  operation  and  maintenance. 

We  would  willingly  dispense  with  the  loco- 
motive-engineer and  fireman  if  we  could;  they 
are  capable  of  something  better  than  watch- 
ing signals  and  shoveling  coal.  The  only  ex- 
cuse for  putting  human  beings  on  such  work 
is  that  the  equipment  used  still  requires  human 
supervision.  Similarly,  in  the  shop,  the  equip- 
ment and  its  purpose  are  the  main  considera- 
tions and  the  duty  of  the  machinist  is  primarily 
to  his  equipment.  As  we  rise  in  the  line  we 
find  each  higher  grade  legitimately  existing 
solely  for  the  benefit  of  what  is  below,  not  for 
the  amusement  of  what  is  above.  The  foreman 
is  there,  not  to  relieve  the  superintendent  of 
responsibility,  but  to  direct  the  men  on  the 
machines  operating  to  repair  the  locomotives 
pulling  the  freight.  The  general  manager  is 
there  for  the  sake  of  the  superintendents,  the 
vice-presidents  are  there  for  the  sake  of  the 
managers  and  the  president  is  there  for  the 
sake  of  the  vice-presidents. 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION          49 

Ideals  may  have  been  imposed  or  have  been 
conceived  by  the  president — the  plan,  perhaps, 
to  develop  a  continent.  The  instrument  used  is 
a  corporation,  whose  efficiency  reward  is  divi- 
dends earned  by  carrying  freight  and  passen- 
gers. These  ideals  of  development,  of  earning 
capacity,  remain ;  but  to  carry  them  out  natural 
laws  must  be  observed,  these  laws  being  effi- 
ciently taught  by  those  qualified  by  study  and 
experience  to  teach  and  direct.  The  laws  are 
applied  by  officials  each  of  whom  is  servant  to 
the  men  over  whom  he  has  directing  control. 
In  vain  does  president  or  vice-president,  man- 
ager or  superintendent,  issue  orders  and  dele- 
gate power  under  current  organization.  Knowl- 
edge and  ability,  desire  and  interest,  become 
diluted  with  every  spreading  step. 

It  is  within  my  knowledge  that  the  able,  con- 
scientious, and  indefatigable  chief  engineer  of 
the  greatest  constructive  enterprise  the  world 
has  ever  undertaken  was  advised  that  the  effi- 
ciency was  very  low,  not  aggregating  much 
over  50  per  cent,  and  of  the  remedies.  He  was 
offered,  free  of  charge,  efficiency  staff  advice. 
He  did  not  avail  himself  of  this  offer  because 
he  belonged  to  the  old  school,  because  he  did 
not  know  that  standards  could  be  established, 


50  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

much  less  realized,  although  in  sanitation  he 
accepted  fundamental  organization  and  author- 
ity; and  so  the  actual  results  under  him  are 
costing  two  hundred  million  dollars  more  than 
they  should  have  cost  if  he  had  been  von 
Moltke,  if  he  had  had  von  Moltke's  conception 
of  modern  organization. 

With  millions  of  flowing  details,  each  sep- 
arately elusive  as  one  among  millions  of 
buzzing  insects,  the  task  seems  hopeless  and 
staggers  us  by  its  immensity,  until  we  remem- 
ber that  honey  bees,  the  most  independent  of 
union  workers,  have,  as  a  union,  gratefully 
accepted  efficiency  administration;  that  dele- 
terious mosquitoes  have  been  suppressed  at  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  by  preventing  their  birth ; 
that  the  task  of  modern  organization  is  to  con- 
trol millions  of  details  through  a  staff  of 
specialists  who  supplement  each  working  unit 
from  tool,  machine,  implement,  up  to  president 
and  to  corporation. 

The  central  part  in  railroading  is  the  loco- 
motive. The  one  essential  for  a  locomotive  is 
to  stay  on  the  track.  This  is  an  absolutely 
modern  conception.  There  was  no  such  idea 
in  the  centuries  of  the  pyramids,  nor  even  in 
the  days  of  Napoleon  and  of  Robert  Fulton. 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION          51 

Because  it  is  modern,  an  organization  has  been 
created  to  see  that  it  works.  One  might  evolve 
the  operation  of  a  modern  railroad  from  the 
wheel  flange.  The  presidents  and  their  staffs 
dictate  a  few  letters  each  day,  perhaps  a  hun- 
dred thousand  in  all;  but  that  rails  may  stay 
in  place  and  resist  the  side  pressure  of  the 
wheel  flange,  two-thousand  five-hundred  million 
spikes  are  inspected  every  day  by  the  humble 
track  walker,  and  though  the  train  runs  under 
the  supreme  control  of  conductor,  of  engineer, 
of  fireman  (as  much  as  the  dray  runs  under  the 
control  of  its  driver)  the  difference  lies  in  the 
fact  that  all  the  departments  of  track  mainte- 
nance, of  equipment  maintenance,  and  half  the 
operating  department,  exist  solely  for  the  pur- 
pose of  moving  the  wheels  on  the  rails,  of 
transmitting  safely  2,600  horse  power  through 
six  half-inch  squares  of  frictional  contact. 

This  is  a  stupendous  result  empirically 
achieved,  since  as  yet  but  little  has  been  stand- 
ardized as  to  either  track,  motive  power,  equip- 
ment, or  operation,  and  no  cost  efficiency  stand- 
ards have  ever  been  theoretically  established 
as  possible  ideals. 

The  defective  wolf-pack  type  of  organization 
which  still  controls  American  railroads,  Amer- 


52  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

ican  industrial  plants,  is  one  in  which  a  chief 
issues  arbitrary  orders  to  his  subordinates  ex- 
pecting them  somehow  or  other  to  execute  them. 
The  perfected  organization  for  industrial  up- 
building and  efficiency  is  one  in  which  special- 
ists formulate  the  underlying  principles,  in- 
struct as  to  their  application,  and  relentlessly 
reveal  both  their  observance  and  neglect. 

It  is  of  minor  importance  how  the  knowledge 
and  experience  of  specialists  is  made  available 
for  the  control  and  guidance  of  all  line  officials. 
Independent  accounting  firms  impose  their 
checks  on  even  the  greatest  corporations.  In- 
dependent efficiency  specialists  might  well  im- 
pose more  profitable  and  important  checks  on 
the  greatest  corporations.  The  same  end 
might  be  attained  from  an  efficiency  engineer, 
advised  by  an  efficiency  board,  holding  a  posi- 
tion of  efficiency  authority  on  a  president's 
staff,  even  as  comptrollers  hold  positions  of 
authority  as  to  accounting. 

Accounting,  however  accurate  and  minute, 
cannot  of  itself  bring  about  efficiency.  Its 
ideals  are  charges,  credits,  and  balances,  with 
authority  for  either  charge  or  credit.  The  only 
standards  it  can  possibly  set  up  are  those  of 
former  attainment,  the  only  inefficiency  it  can 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION          53 

point  out  is  the  failure  to  realize  a  former  at- 
tainment. Accounting  is  unable  either  to  set 
or  attain  ideal  standards.  Yet  no  modern  busi- 
ness presumes  to  run  without  some  kind  of  ac- 
counting. This  is  embryonic  recognition  of  the 
need  of  staff  regulation.  Accounting  in  all  its 
phases  is  a  minor  division  of  one  of  the  twelve 
efficiency  principles,  trustworthy,  immediate 
and  adequate  records.  The  eleven  other  prin- 
ciples are  none  of  them  less  important  than 
records,  some  of  them  more  important. 

A  modern  undertaking  of  any  kind  will  be 
prepared  to  operate  efficiently  when  each  mi- 
nute operation  can  attract  to  itself  all  the  re- 
quired knowledge  and  skill  in  the  universe.  It 
is  only  through  a  qualified  staff,  applying  as 
needed  to  every  detail  the  twelve  principles  of 
efficiency,  that  we  can  build  up  from  the  bot- 
tom instead  of  futilely  dictating  from  the  top. 

How,  practically,  should  this  staff  be  formed 
and  made  effectively  operative?  No  patent 
medicine  exists  that  is  a  universal  tonic  for  all 
forms  of  debility.  No  two  organizations  are 
alike,  either  in  their  merits  or  in  efficiencies, 
and  the  object  of  staff  is  to  provide  what  is 
missing,  whether  in  organization,  recognition 
of  efficiency  principles,  or  their  application. 


54  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

It  is  evident  that  there  ought  to  be  a  con- 
trolling efficiency  engineer,  even  as  there  is  a 
comptrolling  accountant  or  auditor.  The 
comptroller  as  to  accounts  acts  as  a  funnel  into 
which  is  drawn  all  the  best  experience  of  the 
world  as  to  accounting,  and  after  filtration  it 
is  carried  authoritatively  down  the  line  and 
applied  where  needed.  A  competent  librarian 
acts  as  an  intermediary  between  all  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  universe  collected  in  books,  and  the 
great  miscellaneous  reading  public  seeking  in- 
formation. An  efficiency  engineer  ought  simi- 
larly to  act  as  a  funnel,  being  equipped  to 
gather  from  all  available  sources  whatever  is 
of  operating  value  for  the  organization  he  is 
advising. 

Just  as  it  is  the  business  of  the  comptroller 
to  apply  accounting  principles,  so  is  it  the  busi. 
ness  of  the  efficiency  engineer  to  apply  to  all 
operations  the  twelve  principles  of  efficiency. 
The  duty  of  the  executive  desiring  efficiency, 
who  has  accepted  the  defensive,  upbuilding 
type  of  organization  by  appointing  an  efficiency 
chief,  is  not  to  demand  details  but  to  demand 
a  certain  efficiency — whether  80,  90,  100  or  110 
per  cent — and  he  should  make  himself  suffi- 
ciently familiar  with  the  twelve  efficiency  prin- 


EFFICIENCY  TYPE  OF  ORGANIZATION          55 

ciples  to  apprehend  their  bearing  on  ultimate 
efficiency,  thus  qualifying  himself  to  second 
and  make  operative  the  plans  of  his  expert.  If 
he  waives  the  attainment  of  any  definite  excel- 
lence, he  may  set  up  his  own  limiting  standards 
as  to  each  of  the  twelve  principles  and  instruct 
his  efficiency  engineer  to  accomplish  what  he 
can  under  the  limitations  imposed.  Everybody 
knows  that  a  horse  trotting  a  mile  in  two  min- 
utes can  be  secured,  and  that  the  mile  will  be 
trotted  in  this  limit  if  every  condition  required 
for  success  is  provided.  On  the  other  hand,  a 
wagon  may  be  loaded  with  5,000  pounds,  a  mile 
measured  over  a  bad  road,  and  the  horse  and 
driver  told  to  do  the  best  they  can.  They  may 
do  well,  but  it  will  not  be  a  two-minute  per- 
formance. 

In  industrial  operation,  a  whole  plant — a 
whole  railroad,  for  instance — can  be  brought 
up  to  the  highest  practicable  efficiency  if  the 
principles  are  applied  by  a  master  mind,  using 
a  properly  equipped  organization.  Even  a 
Napoleon  forced  to  use  a  defective  organization 
and  emasculated  principles  can  attain  at  best 
mediocre  results.  An  incompetent  head,  if  sup* 
plemented  by  a  perfect  organization,  will  often 
do  little  harm,  as  has  so  often  been  shown  in 


56  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

the  progress  of  England  under  some  no-account 
kings. 

An  inferior  leader,  however,  relying  on  de- 
fective organization,  without  ideals,  is  bound 
to  go  down  in  defeat  and  to  drag  down  with 
him  all  he  controls. 


Ill 

THE  FIRST  PRINCIPLE:  CLEARLY 
DEFINED  IDEALS 


Life's  just  a  matter  of  farming — of  finding  fertile 
soil  in  a  good  field— of  breaking  ground  and  being 
patient.  The  harvesting  comes  last — the  main  work 
must  be  done  while  the  least  results  are  showing. — 
HERBERT  KAUFMANN. 

Make  your  chart  before  you  start.  Know  what 
you're  after  before  you  start  out  for  it.  —  HERBERT 
KAUFMANN. 

Each  wakening  song  and  glint  of  green 
And  Earth's  new  blossom  crieth:  "See, 

Life's  measure  is  not  what  hath  been, 
But  what  may  be!" 

CHARLES  BUXTON  GOING. 

He  only  seems  to  me  to  live  and  to  make  wise  use 
of  life  who  sets  himself  some  serious  work  to  do  and 
seeks  the  end  of  a  task  well  and  skilfully  performed. 
— SALLUST. 

If  a  man  does  not  know  to  what  port  he  is  steering, 
no  wind  is  favorable  to  him. — SENECA. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   FIRST   PRINCIPLE:   CLEARLY  DE- 
FINED IDEALS 

ASSUMING    an    organization    adapted    to 
their  application,  it  will  be  found  that 
efficiency  principles,  although  all  inter- 
related, all  necessary  to  each  other  for  highest 
results,  nevertheless  stand  in  a  logical  sequence. 
The  first  principle  is  a  clearly  defined  ideal. 
In  the  earlier  days  of  American  manufactur- 
ing and  transportation  development,  a  century 
ago,  a  bright  young  journeyman  who  started 
out  to  manufacture  some  special  line  was  very 
definitely  aware  of  what  he  intended  to  make 
and  how  the  work  was  to  be  done.    He  knew 
what  he  wanted.    At  the  present  time,  in  large 
plants  men  succeed  to  authority  by  transfer  or 
by    promotion    and    are    very    often    without 
definite  conceptions  of  the  purposes  for  which 
the  plant  is  working.    Workers  and  foremen  at 
the  lower  end  of  line  organizations  are  so  far 

59 


60  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

from  the  "Little  Father"  or  from  the  "Big 
Stick"  who  dictates  all  policies,  who  alone  is 
responsible  for  organization,  for  delegation  of 
power,  and  for  supervision,  that  they  are 
driven  to  create  minor  ideals  and  inspirations 
of  their  own,  these  being  often  at  variance  with 
the  ideals  of  those  above  them.  If  all  the  ideals 
animating  all  the  organization  from  top  to  bot- 
tom could  be  lined  up  so  as  to  pull  in  the  same 
straight  line,  the  resultant  would  be  a  very 
powerful  effort;  but  when  these  ideals  pull  in 
diverse  directions,  the  resultant  force  may  be 
insignificantly  positive — may,  in  fact,  be  nega- 
tive. 

This  condition  of  subsidiary  deleterious  and 
conflicting  ideals  is  very  common  in  all  Amer- 
ican plants,  as  well  as  great  vagueness  and  un- 
certainty as  to  the  major  ideal,  even  among  the 
higher  officials,  as  we  shall  try  to  show  by  vari- 
ous examples  which  could  be  duplicated  by 
every  experienced  manager  in  the  country. 

A  handy  man  in  a  railroad  repair  shop  ex- 
amined cylinders  for  cracks.  These  were  often 
so  unimportant  that  they  could  be  safely  re- 
paired by  a  patch,  but  in  other  cases  a  new 
cylinder  had  to  be  ordered.  A  patch  may  cost 
$30,  a  new  cylinder  $600.  The  handy  man 


IDEALS  61 

swelled  with  pride  when  his  recommendation 
for  a  new  cylinder  was  heeded.  He  boasted  to 
his  wife  and  fellows  of  the  confidence  placed 
in  him  and  the  importance  of  his  work.  When 
in  doubt,  he  reported  always  in  favor  of  a  new 
cylinder;  and  it  was  easier  to  accept  his  rec- 
ommendation than  to  institute  a  separate  re- 
visional  examination  to  be  made  by  a  man 
scarcely  better  qualified.  The  ideals  of  econ- 
omy and  promptness  were  submerged,  and  the 
conflicting  ideal  of  individual  aggrandizement 
substituted. 

A  large  plant  was  filled  with  machinery  for 
turning  out  work.  Some  of  these  machines 
were  automatic  and  some  hand-operated.  The 
automatic  had  been  introduced  to  lessen  ex- 
penses and  delays.  The  superintendent  of  the 
department  was  an  ardent  patriot  and  church- 
man ;  not  a  man  was  employed  by  him  who  was 
not  recruited  from  his  own  nationality  and 
church.  He  had  installed  piece  rates,  singular- 
ly inappropriate,  since  volume  of  work  fluctu- 
ated suddenly  between  wide  limits.  When  work 
fell  off,  instead  of  doing  it  all  on  the  automatics, 
he  shut  these  down,  and  had  it  all  done  by  hand 
so  as  to  give  employment  to  his  piece  workers. 
His  ideals  were  not  "best  product  in  shortest 


62  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

time  at  least  expense/'  but  "largest  amount  of 
employment  and  reward  to  fellow -country  men 
and  co-religionists"  This  superintendent  being 
unsupplied  with  ideals  by  the  management,  had 
created  his  own. 

In  another  plant  twenty-four  men  were  work- 
ing in  the  tool  room.  This  was  an  excessive 
force,  and  the  specialist  in  charge  of  tools  al- 
lowed it  gradually  to  shrink  through  resigna- 
tions to  eighteen  men.  Suddenly  six  new  men 
reported  for  duty  in  the  tool  room,  engaged  by 
the  general  foreman.  When  the  specialist  in- 
terviewed him  on  the  subject  he  stated:  "My 
allowance  for  tool  room  is  twenty-four  men.  If 
I  get  along  without  this  number  my  allowance 
may  be  curtailed.  Later  when  I  need  the  men 
I  may  not  be  able  to  secure  them.  I  propose  to 
maintain  the  allowance  whether  there  is  work 
or  not."  It  took  a  long  time  to  convince  this 
foreman : — 

First,  that  twenty-four  men  were  not  needed. 

Second,  that  if  scheduled  work  made  fifty 
men  necessary  he  could  have  them. 

Distorted  ideals  placed  him  in  antagonism 
to  the  main  purpose  of  the  management. 

In  another  plant,  a  general  superintendent 
was  very  averse  to  any  reduction  of  men  below 


IDEALS  63 

one  thousand.  He  was  anxious  to  turn  out 
more  work,  was  willing  to  curtail  hours  of  the 
thousand  employed,  but  to  fall  below  one 
thousand,  even  though  they  voluntarily  dropped 
out,  seemed  to  him  to  be  lowering  his  own  rank 
since  he  had  worked  for  years  to  reach  the  posi- 
tion of  superintendency  over  a  thousand  men. 
Economy,  efficiency,  were  all  waived  on  account 
of  a  perverse  ideal — personal  pride. 

The  general  superintendent  of  a  plant  em- 
ploying twelve-thousand  mechanics  was  firmly 
convinced  that  the  only  way  to  turn  out  a  large 
volume  of  work  was  to  employ  more  men.  He 
seemed  to  think  that  men  could  be  piled  into  one 
side  of  the  balance  scale  and  volume  of  work 
into"  the  other  and  that  men  would  pull  up  the 
work  by  their  gross  weight.  On  one  occasion 
he  sent  out  an  order  that  economy  was  not  the 
object,  but  the  production  of  output,  and  that 
the  force  was  to  be  increased  to  the  maximum. 
He  ran  up  expenses  $500,000  in  five  months  and 
raised  his  unit  costs  far  above  what  they  had 
been,  far  above  those  of  his  competitors,  far 
above  what  they  retreated  to  when  he  was  re- 
lieved of  authority.  A  false  numerical  ideal 
worked  at  contrary  purposes  to  true  efficiency 
ideals. 


64  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

The  president  of  a  great  industrial  corpora- 
tion authorized  standard-practice  policies,  then 
entered  into  contracts  with  clients  on  the  basis 
of  material,  direct  labor,  and  a  percentage  on 
direct  labor.  When  it  was  pointed  out  to  him, 
that  increased  efficiency  would  mean  fewer 
hours  of  direct  labor,  therefore  less  pay  and 
less  percentage  for  the  same  work,  he  promptly 
solved  the  difficulty  by  relieving  the  standard- 
practice  advisor  from  the  duty  of  offering  fur- 
ther unpalatable  advice,  and  by  forbidding  the 
application  of  efficiency  methods  to  the  shop  in 
question. 

In  the  early  days  of  railroad  construction  all 
over  the  world,  false  conceptions  and  ideals 
greatly  increased  cost  and  left  a  legacy  of  in- 
efficiency that  centuries  may  not  be  long  enough 
to  obliterate. 

The  British  engineers  set  up  such  high 
standards  of  grade,  curvature,  and  double 
tracking,  together  with  such  low  standards  of 
clearance,  as  to  double  the  initial  cost  of  all 
British  roads  and  curtail  forever  their  capacity. 

It  is  told  of  King  Louis  I  of  Bavaria  that 
when  he  took  his  initial  ride  on  the  newly  con- 
structed first  rail  line  in  his  kingdom,  he  ex- 
pressed great  disappointment  that  there  was  no 


IDEALS  5 

tunnel,  so  the  line  was  relocated  and  made  to 
run  through  a  hill. 

Emperor  Nicholas  of  Russia  when  deferen- 
tially asked  by  his  engineers  how  the  line  was 
to  be  located  between  St.  Petersburg  and  Mos- 
cow, took  a  ruler  and  pencil  and  ruled  straight 
lines  between  the  two  cities.  "That  is  the  loca- 
tion, gentlemen !"  It  cost  $337,000  a  mile,  the 
distance  about  400  miles.  The  railways  in  Fin- 
land, where  staff  advice  was  heeded,  cost 
$23,000  a  mile. 

Americans  feel  like  smiling  scoffingly  at  these 
mistakes,  but  was  this  arbitrary  action  any 
worse  than  that  of  a  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
who,  without  investigation  and  in  spite  of  re- 
monstrance by  the  naval  board  of  construction, 
ordered  the  "Texas"  built  exactly  according  to 
the  discordant  purchased  plans  for  two  differ- 
ent vessels  ?  No  wonder  the  "Texas"  was  always 
a  monstrosity !  But  it  has  at  last  served  a  really 
useful  end  under  the  name  "San  Marcos"  in 
being  used  as  a  target  to  test  the  accuracy  and 
power  of  the  big  guns  on  the  newer  battleships. 

What  also  shall  we  think  of  that  American 
transcontinental  road  which  having  a  water 
level  between  two  points,  384  miles  apart,  de- 
liberately abandoned  the  water  level  and  put 


66  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

in  2,500  feet  of  mountain  climbing  and  as  many 
of  descent  between  the  same  points,  the  officials 
after  all  failing  to  secure  from  a  little  western 
city  the  bonus  for  which  they  had  sacrificed 
good  location  for  all  time. 

In  all  these  instances,  from  handy  man  with 
cracked  cylinder  to  king,  emperor,  or  knave  rul- 
ing a  railroad  location,  there  is  a  definite  ideal, 
however  bad,  consistently  pursued;  and  when 
these  ideals  stand  in  dependent  sequence,  the 
result  becomes  exceedingly  costly.  The  handy 
man  orders  a  $600  cylinder  instead  of  a  $30 
patch ;  his  foreman,  wishing  to  employ  as  many 
of  his  church  members  as  possible,  has  the 
cylinder  made  on  an  inferior  machine,  with  high 
piece  rates;  the  general  foreman  fills  the  tool 
room  with  unnecessary  men  who  become  busy 
doing  useless  work  at  heavy  expense  in  mate- 
rials and  overhead  expense;  the  shop  superin- 
tendent is  content  as  he  sees  the  men  under 
him  pass  the  one-thousand  mark  and  joyfully 
acquiesces  in  the  general  superintendent's  order 
to  add  fifty  per  cent  to  the  force.  Under  this 
sequence,  the  making  of  an  unnecessary  $600 
cylinder  becomes  almost  a  necessity  and  the 
handy  man  is  promoted  on  account  of  his  skill 
as  a  work  provider.  The  2,500  feet  of  mountain 


IDEALS  67 

grade  makes  many  additional  locomotives  nec- 
essary, so  there  are  many  more  opportunities  to 
make  new  cylinders  instead  of  patching  old 
ones. 

These  are  examples  of  the  cankering  effect 
of  low  or  lateral  ideals,  but  perhaps  even  great- 
er loss  results  from  vague  ideals  and  from  per- 
sonal impulse. 

At  the  siege  of  Sebastopol  the  officers  at  din- 
ner in  the  wardroom  of  a  man-of-war  were 
astounded  to  hear  the  big  siege  gun  boom  sev- 
eral times,  with  explosions  of  midshipmen's 
laughter  afterward.  Each  firing  of  the  gun  cost 
$250.  Investigation  showed  that  bets  were  up 
between  the  middies  as  to  which  one  could  make 
a  donkey  move  in  the  public  square,  and  each 
was  taking  a  shot  in  turn — with  no  damage  to 
the  donkey. 

An  engineer  poured  onto  the  ground  a  gal- 
lon of  40-cent  oil  in  order  to  have  the  tinsmith 
solder  a  leak  in  a  15-cent  can.  A  railroad  track 
foreman  and  gang  were  recently  seen  burying 
under  some  ashes  and  dirt  a  30-foot  steel  rail. 
It  was  less  trouble  to  bury  it  than  to  pick  it  up 
and  place  it  where  it  could  be  saved. 

A  young  engineer  in  railroad  service  started 
out  to  spend  some  $750  for  photographic  ap- 


68  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

paratus,  evidently  laboring  under  the  impres- 
sion that  if  he  only  spent  money  enough  he 
could  overcome  personal,  meteorological,  op- 
tical, and  other  limitations  to  good  work. 

The  superintendent  of  a  plant  ordered  a 
large  automatic  lathe  to  make  crank  pins  from 
the  solid  bar.  He  had  no  ideals  of  his  own, 
but  vaguely  felt  that  an  automatic  lathe  ought 
to  do  cheaper  work.  When  wire  is  cut  into 
small  screws  it  is  the  work  that  gives  value, 
not  the  material;  but  in  a  crank  pin  it  is  the 
material  that  costs  more  than  the  work,  and 
the  cost  of  waste  of  new  material  on  the  auto- 
matic was  greater  than  the  total  cost  of  scrap 
material,  drop-forging,  and  turning  by  a  boy 
under  the  old  method. 

The  American  mind  is  alert;  men  as  in- 
dividuals have  been  successful  in  proportion  to 
their  initiative;  they  have  made  great  indi- 
vidual successes  and  also  great  individual  faiL 
ures. 

It  is  not  an  accident  that  an  American  re-, 
porter  was  sent  to  find  Livingston  and  that  an 
American  explorer  forced  his  way  to  the  North 
Pole.  This  reckless  confidence  in  impulses, 
this  reliance  on  individual  initiative,  is  respon- 
sible for  many  failures  and  even  if  wild  advice 


IDEALS  69 

is  not  always  followed,  it  is  alarming  that  it 
can  be  so  confidently  offered. 

At  the  time  of  the  planning  of  the  Grand 
Trunk  Pacific  Railway,  a  brilliant  young  sur- 
veyor and  railroad  engineer  wrote  a  thesis, 
urging  that  the  gauge  of  this  new  line  be  made 
30  feet,  freight  cars  be  made  large  enough  to 
handle  1,000  tons,  and  all  the  buildings  in  the 
new  villages,  towns  and  cities  be  erected  in 
standard  cement  sections.  Happily  this  young 
man's  power  was  not  commensurate  with  his 
imagination,  but  it  is  not  always  so.  Not  only 
do  individuals  make  tremendous  blunders,  but 
corporate  bodies  make  greater  ones,  because, 
not  being  composed  of  specialists,  they  are  not 
able  to  curb  the  initiative  of  a  strong-willed 
leader.  As  a  consequence,  clearly  defined  ideals 
are  lacking  and  this  relative  lack  will  have  to 
be  pointed  out  along  general  lines,  using  for 
illustration  the  seven  wonders  of  the  ancient 
world,  the  seven  wonders  of  modern  times,  and 
in  comparison  with  them  seven  great  American 
enterprises. 

There  were  seven  ancient  wonders  of  the 
world,  each  one  of  them  a  great  work,  nobly 
carried  out.  Even  after  the  lapse  of  centuries, 
moderns  of  alien  races  can  recognize  and  sym- 


70  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

pathize  with  the  ideals  that  inspired  these 
wonders.  One  of  the  tests  of  a  definite  ideal 
is  that  we  can  apprehend  it  even  if  we  cannot 
always  sympathize. 

The  oldest  wonder-work  of  man  is  Egyptian 
— the  great  pyramid — at  once  a  tomb  and  an 
astronomical  instrument.  The  last  ancient 
wonder  was  also  Egyptian,  the  Pharos  light- 
house at  Alexandria  to  direct  the  floating  com- 
merce of  the  old  world  to  this  great  city.  One 
of  the  modern  wonder-works  is  also  Egyptian, 
the  Suez  Canal,  so  that  through  four  millen- 
niums Egypt  has  done  a  full  share. 

We  can  sympathize  with  the  desire  to  have 
the  largest  and  highest  tomb  ever  constructed 
so  that  the  bodies  of  king  and  of  queen,  pre- 
served against  decay,  may  lie  in  royal  state 
until  the  time  of  resurrection.  We  can  sym- 
pathize with  the  conception  of  the  great  light- 
house, built  by  King  Ptolemy  Philadelphos — 
even  with  the  trick  of  the  architect  Sostratos, 
who  engraved  his  own  name  in  the  solid  stone, 
but  hid  it  by  a  layer  of  perishable  cement  in 
which  he  engraved  the  king's  name. 

Of  the  remaining  five  ancient  wonders  one 
was  the  hanging  gardens  of  Babylon — a  pe- 
culiarly appropriate  glorification  of  irrigated 


IDEALS  71 

tropical  vegetation  which  has  always  been  able 
to  support  the  densest  population,  a  power  that 
may  in  time  turn  the  tide  of  civilization  back- 
ward from  Canada,  Northern  Europe  and 
Northern  Asia,  back  from  Argentine  to  tropi- 
cal America,  to  tropical  islands.  The  other 
four  wonders  were  Greek,  one  of  them  the 
temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus,  one  the  tomb  of 
King  Mausolus  erected  by  his  widow,  one  the 
Colossus  of  Rhodes,  spanning  with  outstretched 
legs  the  entrance  to  the  harbor,  and  the 
seventh  the  master  work  of  Phidias,  the  gold- 
ivory  statue  of  Jupiter  at  Olympia.  There  was 
faith  or  hope  or  love  or  beauty  or  civic  pride 
in  each  of  these  seven  wonders. 

Of  the  seven  modern  wonder-works  of  the 
world,  not  one  is  American.  One  of  them,  400 
years  old,  had  its  inspiration  in  religion — St. 
Peters  at  Rome,  the  largest  church  ever  built; 
the  second,  100  years  old,  is  the  greatest  trium- 
phal arch  ever  erected,  commemorating  the  vic- 
tories of  the  great  conquerer  Napoleon  I;  the 
other  five  are  modern  engineering  works.  It  is 
typical  of  the  changed  ideal  of  the  ages  that 
only  one  of  the  ancient  wonders  was  utilitarian, 
and  only  one  of  the  modern  wonders  is  relig- 


72  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

ious,  five  being  very  distinctly  utilitarian;  yet 
noble  ideals  gave  them  all  birth. 

Of  the  utilitarian  works  the  Suez  Canal 
easily  comes  first.  It  shortens  the  sea  route 
from  northern  Europe  to  the  Orient  by  5,000 
miles,  between  certain  ports  more  than  half. 
The  canal  was  begun  in  1859,  estimated  to  cost 
$30,000,000  and  to  be  finished  in  1864.  Its 
actual  cost  was  $80,000,000  and  it  was  opened 
in  1869.  The  ideal  was  realized,  but  none  of 
the  other  eleven  efficiency  principles  was  thor- 
oughly applied,  most  of  them  not  at  all;  hence 
both  the  double  time  and  trebled  cost. 

The  next  great  engineering  work  was  also 
French,  the  Eiffel  tower,  rising  1,000  feet  into 
the  air,  at  once  the  highest  structure  erected 
by  man  and  the  prototype  of  modern  American 
steel  construction,  which  as  a  matter  of  course 
followed  when  passenger  elevators  or  lifts  were 
made  practical. 

The  third  great  wonder  is  the  Firth  of  Forth 
bridge;  cantilevers,  similar  to  three  pairs  of 
great  Eiffel  towers,  each  pair  joined  at  its 
base,  each  half  stretching  out  horizontally  900 
feet  without  end  support.  This  bridge  is  mas- 
sive in  design  because  wind  pressure  is  more 
dangerous  than  train  load. 


IDEALS  73 

The  fourth  modern  wonder  is  the  St.  Gott- 
hard  tunnel,  12  miles  long,  under  the  Alps. 
There  was  a  Brenner  railroad  route  over  the 
Austrian  Alps;  a  Mt.  Cenis  tunnel  under  the 
French  Alps;  but  Italy,  Switzerland  and  Ger- 
many combined  to  divert  the  century-old  trade 
between  south  and  north  to  a  shorter  new 
route,  the  key  to  the  situation  being  the  long 
tunnel,  more  than  twice  as  long  as  any  Amer- 
ican railroad  tunnel.  This  enterprise  almost 
failed  because  the  workmen,  hygienically  neg- 
lected, died  in  great  numbers,  killed  by  an 
intestinal  parasite  similar  to  the  hook-worm. 
The  doctors  ascribed  the  mortality  to  the  work 
underground.  The  parasite  has  recently  ap- 
peared in  the  United  States,  and  may  prove  as 
serious  a  scourge  as  the  hook-worm. 

The  seventh  and  last  of  the  modern  wonders 
are  the  twin  cousin  ships,  the  "Olympic"  and 
the  "Titanic,"  conceived  and  designed  to  re- 
store to  Great  Britain  the  blue  ribbon  of  the 
sea.  Of  these  seven  wonders  one  belongs  to 
Italy,  one  jointly  to  Italy  and  Switzerland, 
three  belong  to  France,  and  two  to  Great  Brit- 
ain. An  ideal  definitely  conceived  in  advance 
and  tenaciously  realized  is  manifest  in  each, 
and  in  most  of  them  other  efficiency  principles 


74  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

are  applied,  in  some  only  in  embryonic  vestiges, 
in  others  in  advanced  form — notably  in  the  two 
steamers,  which  as  to  cost,  time  of  completion, 
and  performance,  realized  expectations. 

With  these  fourteen  wonders,  each  with  its 
own  field,  we  may  compare  seven  great  Amer- 
ican works  of  which  none  is  religious,  none  a 
monument  to  beauty,  while  the  utilitarian  value 
of  five  of  them  is  doubtful. 

The  Panama  Canal,  easily  the  costliest  en- 
gineering work  ever  undertaken,  is  being  pros- 
ecuted with  vigor,  and,  thanks  to  the  discovery 
of  the  yellow-fever  mosquito  and  its  suppres- 
sion, a  lock  canal  will  be  finished  at  a  cost  of 
about  $600,000,000.  Of  twenty  great  minds  se- 
lected by  lot,  no  three  would  agree  as  to  the 
ideal  back  of  this  great  work.  Mr.  Roosevelt 
is  entitled  to  speak  with  more  authority  than 
any  one  else,  and  his  reasons  for  its  building 
are  also  those  of  Goethe — that  it  was  a  work 
that  some  one  would  be  tempted  to  undertake, 
some  time,  and  that  the  United  States  was 
manifestly  the  proper  party. 

This  is  vague  and  uninspiring.  The  canal,  in 
times  of  piping  peace,  when  a  navy  is  wanted 
for  minor  police  duties  only,  ought  indeed  to 
lessen  the  need  for  a  double  fleet,  one  in  each 


IDEALS  /5 

ocean;  but  those  who  favor  a  strong  American 
navy,  capable  of  holding  its  own  against  such  a 
combination  as  Great  Britain  and  Japan,  scoff 
at  the  canal  as  a  substitute  for  a  strong  navy. 
They  know  full  well  that  in  case  of  war  with 
strong  maritime  powers  either  entrance  to  the 
canal  could  be  made  exceedingly  dangerous  by 
floating  mines,  by  submarines,  by  aeroplanes; 
that  it  might  be  easy  to  destroy  the  canal  itself 
either  by  damaging  the  locks,  damaging  the 
dam  of  the  Chagres  River,  or  sinking  some 
vessel  in  the  canal.  If,  for  self -protection,  it  is 
imperative  for  the  United  States  to  maintain 
maritime  strength  both  in  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific,  it  is  not  safe  to  risk  the  national  honor 
and  supremacy  on  any  such  device  as  a  canal 
trusting  that  it  will  work  like  a  watch  in  war 
time. 

The  next  in  rank  of  great  American  engi- 
neering works  are  the  new  railroad  terminals 
in  the  city  of  New  York  costing  about 
$300,000,000. 

There  are  engineers  who  consider  big  pas- 
senger terminals  a  survival  of  the  time  when 
English  coaches  started  from  some  central 
hostelry.  Central  terminals  are  perhaps  a  con- 
venience to  through  passengers,  with  trunks; 


76  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

never  to  local  passengers  without  trunks. 
Passengers  with  trunks  are  very  few,  even  in 
the  fast  through  trains.  It  is  possible  that 
these  great  terminals  have  been  built  to  ac- 
commodate the  few  hundred  passengers  who 
have  trunks  ?  The  500,000  people  who  go  to  and 
return  from  Coney  Island  on  single  hot  sum- 
mer holidays  have  not  required  great  termin- 
als; the  million  and  a  half  of  visitors  handled 
on  Chicago  day  at  the  Columbian  Exposition 
did  not  require  $100,000,000  terminals ;  the  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  passengers  handled  daily 
at  42d  Street  subway  or  at  Brooklyn  Bridge 
have  not  required  palatial  terminals.  In  fact, 
these  great  crowds  would  neither  gather  nor 
could  they  be  handled  if  they  had  to  assemble 
at  an  initial  terminal,  and  debouch  from  an 
arriving  terminal,  both  far  from  their  homes. 
Passengers  want  to  be  picked  up  at  their  doors, 
landed  at  their  doors,  like  letters;  they  do  not 
want  the  plan,  now  obsolete  even  in  villages, 
of  delivering  themselves  like  letters  at  the  cen- 
tral post-office  and  collecting  themselves  like 
letters  from  the  general  delivery  or  poste 
restante. 

Nothing  is  more  convenient  than  the  present 
plan  of  checking  trunks  from  house  to  house 


IDEALS  77 

in  cities  far  apart,  for  a  charge  of  one  dollar, 
nothing  more  convenient  than  to  drop  from 
business  office  in  New  York  into  subway  ten 
minutes  before  train  departure  and  go  to  Se- 
attle, Portland,  San  Francisco  or  Los  Angeles, 
winter  or  summer,  needing  neither  hat,  top  coat, 
nor  umbrella  since  the  traveler  is  never  with- 
out cover,  and  if  transfer  has  to  be  made  it  is 
more  comfortable  and  easier  to  make  it  from  a 
Denver  train  to  the  Santa  Fe  flyer  at  La  Junta, 
Colorado,  with  its  station,  than  to  make  a  simi- 
lar change  in  a  great  New  York,  Chicago,  Phil- 
adelphia, or  Washington  terminal.  The  great 
problem  of  city  traffic  is  to  secure  distribution, 
to  scatter  foci,  to  dissolve  congestion.  Ter- 
minals of  necessity  create  and  increase  conges- 
tion. Physically  or  financially,  the  ideals  justi- 
fying these  great  terminal  expenditures  are  not 
startlingly  apparent.  Material  and  mainte- 
nance charges  on  these  great  works,  if  distrib- 
uted to  each  incoming  and  outgoing  trunk,  or 
even  to  each  going  and  coming  through  passen- 
ger, would  give  a  striking  modern  illustration 
of  Horace's  dictum  that  no  artist  makes  a  moun- 
tain travail  to  bring  forth  a  mouse. 

The  Manhattan  transfer  station  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad,  the  125th  Street  station  of 


78  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

the  New  York  Central  Railroad,  are  as  con- 
venient as  the  big  terminals  are  inconvenient. 
One  wonders  why  one  or  both  of  these  great 
companies  did  not  acquire  financing  and  direct- 
ing control  of  the  New  York  subways,  run  on 
them  from  every  part  of  the  city  specially  col- 
ored trains,  gathering  passengers  at  every  ex- 
press station,  landing  them  directly  at  the 
transfer  stations,  where  without  long  walk  or 
loss  of  time,  through  and  even  local  steam 
trains  could  be  boarded  to  every  part  of  the 
United  States. 

An  arrangement  of  this  kind  would  have 
added  vastly  to  the  convenience  of  the  passen- 
gers, and  would  have  saved  a  railroad  invest- 
ment of  $300,000,000,  since  the  subways  are  al- 
ready paying  institutions. 

The  third  great  American  enterprise  is  the 
New  York  barge  canal.  Railroad  men,  keenly 
alert  as  to  its  folly,  assert  that  the  money  to  be 
spent  in  the  barge  canal  would  build,  equip,  and 
operate  without  freight  charges  a  railroad  be- 
tween Buffalo  and  the  Hudson,  capable  of  hand- 
ling ten  times  as  much  freight  in  the  course  of 
a  year.  A  barge  canal  built  by  the  State  seems 
a  roundabout  way  of  curbing  and  limiting 
dreaded  hypothetical  railroad  extortions,  since 


IDEALS  79 

the  St.  Lawrence  River  and  Montreal  route 
more  or  less  fixes  export  rates  from  all  Ameri- 
can ports  during  the  open  season  of  navigation 
for  canal  and  river. 

The  fourth  great  American  projected  under- 
taking is  the  improvement  of  internal  water- 
ways. It  is  assumed  that  the  railroads  are  un- 
controllable, although  a  single  growl  by  the  In- 
terstate Commerce  Commission  causes  a  sense- 
less decline  of  values  in  Wall  Street.  It  is 
assumed  by  some  that  internal  water  transpor- 
tation, subject  to  all  the  vague  uncertainties 
of  low  water,  flood,  and  frost,  can  be  made  so 
cheap  as  to  bankrupt  the  railroads,  although 
the  Mississippi  from  St.  Louis  to  the  sea,  open 
the  year  round,  is  paralleled  by  dividend-pay- 
ing railroads.  Railroad  operation  with  its  chro- 
nometer trains  99.97  per  cent  reliable  between 
terminals  1,000  miles  apart  has  in  this  respect 
realized  an  exalted  and  noble  ideal  not  to  be 
undermined  and  curtailed  by  the  return  to  ob- 
solescent canals  and  river  highways. 

Our  fifth  great  proposed  expenditure  is  for  an 
American  Navy.  If  there  had  been  no  "Maine" 
there  would  have  been  no  Spanish  war,  no  war 
expenditure  of  one  thousand  million  dollars,  no 
Philippine  problem  making  us  an  Eastern 


80  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

Asiatic  power  when  we  have  not  yet  solved  a 
dozen  simple  elementary  problems  at  home, 
such  as  living  wages  for  sweat-shop  workers, 
lack  of  employment,  civic  honesty  and  cleanli- 
ness. 

Every  battleship  five  years  old  is  obsolescent. 
Today's  and  next  year's  development  of  flying 
machines  may  make  every  naval  vessel  as 
doomed  as  was  chain  and  mail  armor  after  the 
invention  of  gunpowder,  as  was  the  sailing  cor- 
vette  after  the  development  of  the  steamship. 
Great  Britain  needs  a  navy  and  has  kept  up  to 
date,  has  moreover  coaling,  repair  and  cable 
stations,  indispensable  to  its  effectiveness;  but 
the  value  of  great  war  navies  to  other  nations 
— Germany,  France,  Russia,  Italy,  Argentina 
and  the  United  States — has  not  yet  been  dem- 
onstrated ;  and  to  two  of  them,  it  has  proved  an 
added  calamity  in  a  losing  war. 

Nevertheless,  being  committed  to  a  navy 
until  such  time  as  possible  enemies  are  willing 
also  to  disarm,  it  is  with  great  pride  that  the 
American  can  point  to  the  efficiency  of  the 
modern  American  battleship,  more  efficient  in 
action  and  operation  than  anything  on  a  simi- 
lar scale  thus  far  evolved  by  man.  Through  the 
improvement  of  the  dependent  sequence  of  dis- 


IDEALS  81 

tance,  accuracy,  rapidity,  and  weight  of  salvo, 
the  modern  American  battleship  is  three-thou- 
sand times  as  efficient  as  its  forerunner  thir- 
teen years  ago  at  the  battle  of  Santiago. 

Every  one  of  these  five  great  works  com- 
mits one  of  our  American  besetting  industrial 
sins — over-equipment — due  to  our  mistrust  of 
spiritual  forces,  reliance  on  material  measures. 
It  is  almost  assumed  that  if  a  mistake  is  gigan- 
tic enough  it  will  become  praiseworthy. 

The  sixth  and  seventh  great  American  works 
are  utilitarian,  the  subways  in  New  York,  and 
the  elevator-served  tall  buildings  everywhere. 
Even  as  to  these,  definite  ideals  have  not  been 
established  and  followed.  Some  of  the  tall 
buildings  sacrifice  utility  to  ornamentation, 
others  are  painfully  ugly  but  admirably 
adapted,  while  a  third  class  are  both  ornamen- 
tal and  convenient.  As  to  the  subways,  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  they  are  an  independent  system 
connecting  with  no  other  road,  it  is  a  pity  that 
they  were  not  made  with  6-foot  gauge  and 
12-foot  wide  double-deck  coaches,  that  they  were 
not  built  as  double-deckers,  thus  giving  300  per 
cent  greater  seating  capacity  for  the  same 
length  of  platform  and  for  a  relatively  small 
increase  of  initial  expense. 


82  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

It  is  not  either  the  right  or  the  privilege  of 
the  Efficiency  Engineer  to  set  up  ideals  of  mo- 
rality, goodness,  or  beauty,  or  to  assume  that 
his  ideal  of  purpose  is  superior;  but  he  has  a 
right  to  expect  that  some  definite  and  tangible 
ideal  will  be  set  up  so  that  at  the  start  its  pos- 
sible incompatibility  with  one  or  more  of  the 
efficiency  principles  may  be  pointed  out.  The 
ideals  underlying  British  railroad  construction 
are  very  clear:  no  grades,  no  curves,  no  grade 
crossings,  double  tracks,  great  passenger  ter- 
minals, and  capitalization  of  all  betterments. 
Although  five  of  these  ideals  are  not  compatible 
with  common  sense  and  were  not  adopted  at  the 
start  by  either  practical  colonials  or  Americans, 
the  Efficiency  Engineer  can  accept  an  estimate 
of  $375,000  a  mile,  the  cost  of  British  railroads, 
and  aid  in  giving  the  best  result  possible  for  the 
money,  since  these  ideals  are  not  incompatible 
with  any  efficiency  principle  except  common 
sense. 

There  is  one  great  American  railroad  gettius^ 
always  an  idealist,  who  has  risen  to  the  com- 
manding position  in  the  railroad  world  because 
he  had  definite  ideals.  He  states  that  a  raiJroad 
company  is  to  be  managed  to  earn  dividends, 
that  expenses  are  by  the  train  mile  and  receipts 


IDEALS  83 

are  by  the  ton  mile.  In  twenty  years,  on  these 
three  precepts,  he  has  built  up  a  dominant  rail- 
road system.  He  has  developed  the  country 
through  which  his  road  ran,  and  lowered  rates, 
because  this  gave  him  more  ton  miles.  He  has 
reduced  grades  and  curvatures  and  used  heavy 
locomotives  and  long  trains  because  this  reduced 
the  cost  per  train  mile.  He  has  reached  out  for 
Oriental  traffic  because  this  not  only  gave  more 
ton  miles,  but  equalized  traffic,  thus  lessening 
ton-mile  cost.  To  each  one  of  the  three  ideals — 
dividends,  low  mile  cost,  large  volume  of  traf- 
fic— each  of  the  other  eleven  principles  could 
be  applied  and  in  unusual  measures  have  been 
applied  by  James  J.  Hill. 

Another  great  railroad  executive,  J.  W.  Ken- 
drick,  regarded  disagreements  with  labor  as 
consuming  time  and  energy,  destructive  to 
peace,  loyalty,  and  harmony,  and  he  therefore 
resolved  to  set  up  a  high  standard  of  discipline 
based  on  the  Fair  Deal  made  attractive  by 
an  Efficiency  Reward.  Not  a  breath  of  labor 
trouble  has  occurred  in  six  years  in  the  depart- 
ments to  which  these  principles  were  applied, 
and  the  cost  of  each  item  of  work  has  decreased, 
the  standard  of  excellence  has  risen,  the  men 
have  earned  more  money. 


84  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

It  is,  however,  in  industrial  companies 
smaller  than  the  great  railroads  that  in  a  few 
cases  high  ideals  have  been  adopted. 

The  ideals  of  one  company  are  that  its  cus- 
tomers shall  be  treated  with  absolute  fairness, 
that  its  employees  shall  be  of  higher  skill  and 
be  better  paid  than  those  of  neighboring  com- 
petitors, that  they  shall  have  permanence  of 
employment.  These  ideals  are  an  admirable 
foundation  on  which  a  very  efficient  organiza- 
tion has  been  built  up,  and  while  the  managers 
have  not  consciously  formulated  and  followed 
the  eleven  other  efficiency  principles,  they  are 
applying  most  of  them. 

The  ideal  of  another  company,  to  which  they 
make  their  own  profits  subsidiary,  is  that  their 
employees  shall  be  able  to  lead  wholesome  New 
England  village  lives,  the  workers  working  near 
their  homes,  the  fathers  with  leisure  to  retain 
leadership  in  their  own  families.  An  ideal  of 
this  kind  is  also  an  admirable  foundation  on 
which  to  build  a  highly  efficient  organization 
for,  in  corporations  as  in  individuals,  what  is 
the  profit  of  gaining  the  whole  world  if  the  soul 
is  lost? 

The  president  of  an  old  and  large  plant  near 
New  York  City  stated  with  high-minded  dig- 


IDEALS  85 

nity  the  ideals  under  which  he  and  his  partners 
managed  their  business,  not  realizing  how  few 
managers  had  had  time  or  opportunity  to  for- 
mulate such  ideals,  much  less  carry  them  into 
practice. 

"We  are  not  money-mad.  We  strive  to  be 
worthy  sons  of  the  worthy  fathers  who  started 
this  manufacturing  business  two  generations 
ago.  We  wish  to  see  our  employees  prosper- 
ous, well-paid,  not  overworked ;  we  wish  to  sur- 
pass the  world  in  the  excellence  of  our  product." 

These  are  lofty,  kindly,  homely  ideals  and 
the  Efficiency  Engineer  can  frame  this  picture 
with  all  the  other  principles. 

As  to  definite  ideals,  we  could  with  profit 
learn  from  by-gone  ages,  although  substituting 
other  inspirations.  Over  one  of  the  Greek  Tem- 
ples the  words  were  carved,  "Know  Thyself/* 
for  which  we  could  substitute,  "Know  the 
Spirit  Rather  than  the  Externals  of  Your  Busi- 
ness." 

In  the  monasteries  of  a  great  religious  order, 
everywhere  was  the  inscription,  "Remember 
that  Death  Comes."  For  this  we  can  substitute, 
"Remember  that  We  Must  Endure."  One  great 
manager  impressed  on  his  workmen  that  there 
were  just  two  ways  of  permanently  raising 


86  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

men's  wages.  To  obtain  more  from  the  pur- 
chaser, or  to  lessen  unit  cost  of  product  by  elim- 
inating wastes. 

The  vagueness,  the  uncertainty,  the  aimless- 
ness  that  characterizes  employees  is  but  an  in- 
filtration of  the  vagueness,  uncertainty,  aim- 
lessness,  that  characterizes  employers.  There 
can  be  no  legitimate  conflict  between  rails  and 
locomotive,  between  locomotive  and  its  engineer 
and  its  firemen,  no  legitimate  conflict  between 
engineer  and  despatcher,  no  conflict  between 
despatcher  and  time-table,  although  the  time- 
table defines  to  a  second  the  running  time  of  a 
train  going  at  extremest  speed  for  a  thousand 
miles  or  more. 

If  every  manager  would  formulate  his  own 
ideals,  promulgate  them  throughout  his  plant, 
post  them  everywhere,  inoculate  every  official 
•  and  every  employee  with  them,  industrial  or- 
ganizations could  attain  the  same  high  degree 
of  individual  and  aggregate  excellence  as  a 
base-ball  league.  These  ideals  ought  both  spe- 
cifically and  by  implication  to  include  much 
that  rational  labor  unions  strive  for ;  they  ought 
as  definitely  to  exclude  ideals  incompatible  with 
efficiency  even  if  labor  unions  mistakenly  ad- 
vocate them. 


IDEALS  87 

For  the  manager  endowed  with  common 
sense  but  two  courses  are  open.  To  set  up  his 
own  ideals  and  reject  all  efficiency  principles 
that  do  not  accord  with  them,  or  to  accept  the 
organization  and  principles  of  efficiency  and 
to  create  correspondingly  high  ideals. 


IV 

THE    SECOND    PRINCIPLE: 
COMMON    SENSE 


The  same  care  and  toil  that  raise  a  dish  of  peas  at 
Christmas  would  give  bread  to  a  whole  family  during 
six  months. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  SECOND  PRINCIPLE:  COMMON 
SENSE. 

DARWIN  points  out  that  the  maternal 
instinct  makes  a  mother  exaggerate 
the  importance  of  her  offspring,  thus 
adding  to  its  chances  of  survival.  Each  of  us 
is  quite  sure  he  possesses  all  the  common  sense 
needed,  and  this  is  also  an  important  instinct, 
since  without  it  we  would  lack  self-confidence, 
initiative,  we  would  be  deficient  in  the  ability  to 
do,  to  accomplish.  Before  the  human  being 
runs,  he  walks,  before  he  walks  he  creeps,  be- 
fore he  creeps  he  kicks,  and  the  sprawls  of  the 
infant  give  us  promise  of  the  man.  Let  us 
therefore  concede  to  each  mother  that  her  baby 
is  the  most  valuable  ever  born,  let  us  praise  the 
excessive  and  ill-directed  activity  of  the  grow- 
ing boy.  Let  us  also  believe  that  no  one  is  de- 
ficient either  in  quantity  or  quality  of  a  form 
of  common  sense  essential  in  past  decades,  but 

91 


92  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

now  doubly  dangerous,  since  it  not  only  stimu- 
lates activities  that  are  becoming  in  the  highest 
degree  deleterious,  but  it  prevents  us  from  pre- 
paring for  the  dawning  era  in  which  brains 
and  hand-skill  will  take  up  the  work  begun 
with  boldness  and  lusty  kicks  in  our  exuberant 
youth. 

It  is  because  I  have  an  abiding  faith  in  the 
destiny  both  of  my  country  and  its  inhabi- 
tants that  I  urge  the  application  to  its  affairs 
of  efficiency  principles.  That  its  people  have  in 
the  past  abundantly  made  use  of  a  high  order 
of  near  common  sense  justifies  the  belief  that 
in  the  future  it  will  surpass  other  nations  in  the 
use  of  supernal  common  sense.  Let  us  there- 
fore grasp  the  difference  between  the  two,  and, 
having  grasped  it,  let  us  wake  up  to  some  of 
the  obvious  present  stumbling  blocks  in  our  na- 
tional, corporate  and  individual  paths. 

The  surf  rider  in  Honolulu,  who,  standing  on 
a  board  comes  in  on  a  curling  breaker,  is  dar- 
ing, skilled,  and  intensely  alive  to  the  swirls  at 
his  feet.  He  is  a  good  navigator  of  his  kind; 
but  there  are  men  who  guide  great  ships  by  not- 
ing the  revolutions  of  the  log,  by  marking  the 
tick  of  the  chronometer,  correcting  both  by  the 
movement  of  the  planets  and  the  stars.  It  is  by 


COMMON  SENSE  93 

these  men,  not  by  the  surf  riders,  that  the  great 
business  of  the  world  is  carried  on,  but  the 
youthful  surf  riders  of  today  are  to  become  the 
guiding  captains  of  the  next  decade.  The  com- 
mon sense  of  the  American  is  the  alert  common 
sense  of  the  surf  rider.  It  is  not  yet,  either 
nationally,  corporately,  or  individually  the  com- 
mon sense  of  the  far-knowing  captain  on  the 
bridge,  and  what  we  need  is  not  more  common 
sense  or  more  alertness,  but  a  diametrical 
change  in  our  point  of  veiw.  The  boy  must 
forget  his  surf  skill  for  a  while  and  go  to  the 
mountain  top  and  learn  to  know  the  stars  so 
that  he  will  hold  them  as  friends  whatever 
sea  or  desert  he  navigates  or  traverses. 

A  single  red  copper  cent  seemed  of  more 
worth  to  the  small  and  terrified  soul*  of  a 
New  England  statesman  than  all  our  splendid 
country  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  be- 
cause he  had  near  common  sense,  he  was  will- 


*  "What  do  we  want  of  the  vast  worthless  area,  this  region  of 
savages  and  wild  beasts,  of  deserts  of  shifting  sands  and  whirlwinds 
of  dust,  cactus  and  prairie  dogs?  To  what  use  could  we  ever  hope 
to  put  these  deserts,  or  these  endless  mountain  ranges,  impenetrable 
and  covered  to  their  bases  with  eternal  snow?  What  can  we  ever 
hope  to  do  with  the  western  coast  of  three  thousand  miles,  rock- 
bound,  cheerless  and  uninviting,  with  not  a  harbor  in  it?  What  use 
have  we  for  such  a  country?  Mr.  President,  I  will  never  vote  one 
cent  from  the  public  treasury  to  place  the  Pacific  Coast  one  inch 
nearer  Boston  than  it  is  today."  (Part  of  Daniel  Webster's  speech 
in  Congress  in  1844  against  an  appropriation  of  $50,000  to  estab- 
lish mail  communication  with  the  Pacific  Coast.) 


94  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

ing  to  sacrifice  anything  to  New  England  fish- 
ing interests;  because  he  was  destitute  of  su- 
pernal common  sense,  he  lost  to  us  the  empire 
lying  west  of  the  Rockies  north  of  49  degrees 
up  to  54  degrees  40  minutes,  and,  no  thanks  to 
him,  we  did  not  also  lose  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington. 

Happily  there  were  others,  earlier  and  later, 
Spanish  captains,  French  gentlemen  and 
French  priests,  American  pathfinders,  who  in 
duty,  necessity  and  joy  used  ice  floes  as  ships, 
rode  the  river  currents  as  steeds,  wielded  the 
forest  fire  as  an  axe,  dynamite  and  mountain 
torrent  as  a  shovel,  until  we  have  got  into  the 
habit  of  trusting  to  gifts,  not  trusting  to  our- 
selves, of  deputizing  the  fight  from  our  own 
hands  and  muscles  to  vast  steam  and  machine 
equipment.  And  while  we  appropriate  these 
titanic  helps,  gifts,  and  implements,  we  child- 
ishly squander  our  national  resources  in  ex- 
change for  perishable  luxuries  supplied  us  by 
older  and  wiser  men,  corporations,  and  nations, 
who,  not  having  gifts  and  prodigal  equipment, 
still  use  their  brains  and  hands — men  who 
trade  us  sunshine,  water,  and  air  for  our  mined 
wealth,  for  our  soil's  fertility. 

At  the  present  market  price   of  nitrogen, 


COMMON  SENSE  95 

phosphorus,  and  potash,  every  pound  of  cot- 
ton that  leaves  our  shores  carries  with  it  about 
$0.03  of  soil  value,  every  bushel  of  corn  or 
wheat  carries  away  about  $0.20  of  soil  fertil- 
ity. The  nominal  profit,  about  $0.03  a  pound 
on  cotton,  about  $0.20  a  bushel  on  grain,  is  no 
greater  than  the  market  price  of  what  is  taken 
from  soil  value,  and  our  agriculturist  is  devot- 
ing his  great  activity,  his  strenuous  life  of  long 
hours,  to  the  spending  of  his  capital.  The  net 
income  is  nil. 

In  the  industrial  and  financial  world  our 
four  greatest  living  Americans,  all  men  of  ex- 
traordinary genius  and  ability,  are:  Andrew 
Carnegie  who  built  up  his  gigantic  fortune  by 
converting  into  iron  and  steel,  and  marketing 
them,  the  national  resources  in  iron  ore  and 
coal;  James  J.  Hill,  who  has  capitalized  his 
ablity  to  stimulate  the  exhaustion  of  the  north- 
west wheat  fields  and  the  Pacific  Coast  forests ; 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  who  has  marvelously 
stimulated  and  financed  most  of  the  great  cor- 
porations existing  for  the  destruction  of  in- 
herited resources;  John  D.  Rockefeller,  who 
has  carried  good  and  cheap  light  into  the 
hovels  of  China,  of  Africa,  but  who  has  poured 
out  of  America  by  barrel,  by  case,  and  by  tank 


96  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

steamer,  our  lakes  of  petroleum  that  it  took 
millions  of  years  of  sunlight  and  earth's  in- 
ternal heat  and  chemistry  to  accumulate. 

We  are  nearly  all  of  us  engaged  in  similar 
work,  and  as  has  been  said  of  babies,  if  our 
ability  to  exhaust  and  destroy  were  commen- 
surate with  our  proclivities,  the  United  States 
would  before  now  have  become  an  emptied 
shell. 

The  civilized  European  and  Asiatic  national 
policies  are  wholly  different.  They  regard  us 
much  as  the  thrifty  purveyors  of  amusement 
and  debauchery  regard  the  recent  notorious 
paranoiac  who  squandered  his  inherited  patri- 
mony abroad,  doing  nothing  of  value  with  either 
hand  or  brain,  sweeping  all  the  glassware  from 
a  bar  in  a  spirit  of  wanton  destruction,  oozing 
gold  to  those  wiser  and  more  cunning,  more 
active  in  brain  and  body  than  himself,  until 
broken  in  fortune,  mind,  and  body,  he  ends 
his  days  in  an  asylum  for  the  criminally  insane. 
What  a  contrast  between  this  man  and  the 
great  European  artists,  Sarah  Bernhardt,  Pad- 
erewski,  Caruso,  and  Genee,  who,  inheriting  no 
fortune  and  with  no  equipment,  depleting  no 
national  resources,  using  only  brain  and  muscle, 
exchange  their  fleeting  efforts  for  half  a  mil- 


COMMON  SENSE  97 

lion  American  dollars  apiece,  which  they  take 
back  to  their  native  countries,  whence  it  flows 
again  to  us  in  exchange  for  our  irreplaceable 
products. 

Does  the  American  paranoiac  differ  much 
from  the  American  State  of  Nevada  which  a 
generation  ago,  in  its  golden  youth,  took  $300,- 
000,000  in  gold  and  silver  from  the  ground,  ex- 
ported it  all  for  transitory  equivalents,  and  then 
lapsed  into  a  sparsely  settled  desert  waste? 

Switzerland  was  to  Europe  what  the  western 
deserts  were  to  North  America,  a  region  desti- 
tute of  national  resources,  but  for  centuries  the 
canny  Swiss  marketed  the  fighting  skill  of  their 
sons,  who  hired  out  in  companies  as  guards 
for  kings  like  Louis  the  XVI  of  France,  or  as 
gateway  guards  for  private  palaces,  until  in 
French  the  word  "suisse"  has  become  to  mean 
"front-door  custodian." 

When  the  French  revolution  curtailed  the  op- 
portunities for  defending  kings  and  palaces,  the 
Swiss  started  in  to  market  their  wild  scenery, 
to  this  end  building  good  roads  and  good  hotels, 
making  visitors  from  all  over  the  world  come 
to  their  country.  Up  to  this  time  the  taste  of 
the  educated  had  been  for  flat,  formal,  conven- 
tional and  tidy  landscapes,  mountains  being 


98  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

held  in  horror.  The  Swiss  also  began  to  market 
little  blocks  of  lumber  for  their  weight  in  silver 
(after  they  had  carved  them  by  hand  and  brain 
skill) .  They  imported  raw  materials  from  $20 
a  ton  up,  and  they  exported  them  again  as 
watches  worth  from  $32,000  to  $16,000,000  a 
ton,  the  difference  between  import  value  and 
export  value  being  Swiss  brains  and  handicraft. 
A  very  high  order  of  supernal  common  sense 
animates  the  Swiss. 

No  wonder  that  the  former  Senators  from 
Nevada,  Stewart  and  Jones,  with  their  lives  in- 
tertwined into  a  stupendous  example  of  collec- 
tive prodigality,  experiencing  in  their  own  for- 
tunes and  activities  its  effects,  studied  more 
deeply  the  inter-relation  of  man,  national  re- 
sources and  money  than  all  the  professors  and 
statesmen  of  the  eastern  seaboard ;  Nevada  can 
teach  us  more  than  one  lesson.  It  was  in  Ne- 
vada that  two  pugilists,  one  black,  the  other 
white,  by  one  hour's  strenuous  brain  and  body 
work  before  a  moving-picture  camera,  produced 
pictures  with  a  net  export  value  of  $100,000. 
We  can  achieve  in  America  when  we  wake  up, 
and  if  two  of  our  citizens,  Johnson  and  Jeffries, 
can  manufacture  in  one  hour's  time  export 
value  worth  $100,000,  yet  not  deplete  our  nat- 


COMMON  SENSE  99 

ural  resources,  could  not  some  of  our  citizens  of 
higher  moral,  mental,  and  financial  equipment 
use  a  higher  order  of  common  sense  and  develop 
for  export  other  products  of  American  hands 
and  brains?  The  depletion  of  Nevada  was  a 
very  high  order  of  near  common  sense.  The 
production  of  exportable  films  of  a  prize  fight 
is  a  very  low  order  of  supernal  common  sense. 

There  is  another  Johnson,  Eldridge  Reeves 
Johnson,  one  of  the  few  exceptions  in  our  mil- 
lions, who,  by  means  of  a  few  cents  worth  of 
materials  supplemented  by  American  brain  and 
hand  skill  is  capturing  the  great  singing  voices, 
the  instrumental  bands,  the  speech  of  great  ac- 
tors, and  exporting  disks  at  $5  each  to  the  ag- 
gregate amount  of  millions.  All  honor  to  this 
exceptional  man. 

The  table  on  page  101,  from  figures  in  the 
June,  1910,  report  of  the  United  States  Bureau 
of  Statistics,  shows  that  one-half  our  imports 
consist  either  of  articles  of  luxury,  as  silks, 
wines,  diamonds,  or  of  products  that  do  not 
deplete  natural  resources,  as  rubber,  sugar, 
chemicals,  or  manufactures  of  which  the  value 
is  mainly  due  to  highly  skilled  labor  and 
delicate  machinery,  as  cotton  and  linen  lace, 
works  of  art  and  skill;  and  that  our  exports 


100  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

consist  largely  of  prime  raw  materials,  which 
deplete  our  natural  resources,  which  are  pro- 
duced in  vast  quantities  by  unskilled  labor 
aided  by  big  and  rough  machines. 

Even  as  to  an  item  like  tobacco,  in  which  im- 
ports and  exports  are  not  far  apart  in  value, 
imports  were  46,838,330  pounds  and  exports 
357,196,074  pounds,  more  than  seven  times  as 
much  in  quantity. 

The  exported  materials,  oils,  metals,  coals, 
can  never  be  replaced ;  the  exported  lumber  can- 
not be  regrown  in  centuries.  The  imported  silk, 
sugar,  coffee,  wool,  tobacco  and  wines  consist  of 
brain  skill,  hand  skill,  sunlight,  air  and  water ; 
the  chemicals  are  often  high  priced  by-products 
which  we  waste ;  china,  glass  and  laces  are  im- 
mensely valuable  compared  to  the  materials 
which  make  them,  are  therefore  brain  and  hand 
products.  Of  the  ten  leading  imported  products, 
diamonds  alone  are  lasting;  all  the  others  are 
fleeting  luxuries,  eaten  up,  drunk  up,  smoked 
up,  worn  out  before  the  year  rolls  around. 

Germany's  governmental  policy  is  to  encour- 
age the  exports  of  brain,  labor,  sunshine,  air 
and  water ;  there  is  nothing  in  sugar,  in  alcohol, 
but  carbon,  gathered  from  the  air,  but  hydro- 
gen and  oxygen  gathered  from  the  rain  water, 


COMMON  SENSE  101 

transformed  by  the  fiun  into  beet  plants,  grown 
in  fields,  tilled  and  weeded  by  hand,  the  beet 
pulp  being  transformed  by.  other  hands  and 

IMPORTS. 
Total  imports $1,557,819,988 

India  rubber,  unmanufactured $106,861,496 

Sugar  106,349,005 

Silk 100,003,636 

Coffee,  tea,  cocoa 94,242,360 

Chemicals  drugs,  dyes 90,964,241 

Manufactured  cotton 66,473,143 

Manufactured  fibers,  linen,  hemp,  etc 57,624,245 

Diamonds  and  stones 47,799,801 

Tobacco,  unmanufactured 27,751,279 

Spirits  and  wines 23,384,133 

Works  of  art 21,088,720 

Earthenware,  china  and  glass 17,574,890 

Bonnets  and  hats 7,950,530 

Toys   6,585,781 


49.7  per  cent,  of  total  imports $774,653,260 

EXPORTS. 
Total  exports $1,710,083,998 


Raw  cotton  $450,447,243 

Animals,  meats,  leather,  furs,  etc.,  not  in- 
cluding fish 199,996,328 

Breadstuffs   133,191,330 

Mineral  oils  and  paraffin 106,976,571 

Copper  88,004,397 

Rosin,  etc.,  vegetable  oils  and  oil  cake 54,412,275 

Logs  and  lumber 51,852,136 

Coal  and  coke 43,589,918 

Tobacco,  unmanufactured   38,115,386 

Fertilizers  8,700,640 


68.7  per  cent,  of  total  exports $1,175,286,224 


102  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

skilled  knowledge  into  sugar  and  alcohol.  Den- 
mark and  Holland  export  butter  which  takes 
nothing  from  the  soil.  The  French  import 
Asiatic  silk,  weave  it  at  Lyons,  and  export  the 
finished  product.  They  export  wine,  by  analysis 
87  per  cent  water,  10  per  cent  alcohol  and  0.04 
per  cent  aroma  and  bouquet.  Water  and  alcohol 
take  nothing  from  the  soil,  but  the  aroma  makes 
the  wine  worth  from  ten  dollars  a  pound  down. 
In  the  peace  negotiations  between  Bismarck 
and  the  French  in  1871  it  was  not  the  money  in- 
demnity, it  was  not  the  loss  of  territory,  that 
prolonged  negotiations.  Bismarck  bethought 
himself  to  demand  5,000  empty  old  champagne 
barrels,  impregnated  with  the  aroma,  the  bou- 
quet-producing ferment,  and  this  the  French 
refused.  They  had  consented  to  pay  $1,000,- 
000,000,  they  broken-heartedly  gave  up  Alsace 
and  Lorraine,  but  the  bouquet  of  their  priceless 
wines  Bismarck  should  not  have,  and  in  the  end 
they  compromised  on  five  barrels.  The  French 
were  instinctively  governed  by  supernal  com- 
mon sense. 

America  had  great  natural  resources.  The 
man  who  grabbed  them  first  and  fastest  reaped 
the  greatest  reward.  Tonnage,  quantity,  became 
a  mania,  men  and  equipment  to  produce  ton- 


COMMON  SENSE  103 

nage  have  been  the  supreme  aim.  The  Ameri- 
can who  killed  the  most  buffalo  for  their  hides, 
felled  the  largest  tree  cutting  to  lumber  only 
the  main  stem,  pastured  the  most  cattle  on  free 
government  range,  scooped  or  trapped  the  most 
salmon  by  current-turned  wheels  or  other  traps, 
has  been  a  qwem-national  hero.  Because  these 
deeds  were  done  by  rifle,  by  steam  saws,  by  cow- 
boy outfits,  by  trap  devices,  it  has  become  in- 
stinctive with  us  to  exalt  "tonnage"  or  quantity, 
to  exalt  equipment  and  to  underrate  organiza- 
tion. The  instinct  is  therefore  almost  invari- 
ably to  over-equip  and  to  under-organize,  to 
work  with  masses  and  aggregate  rather  than 
with  details  and  ideals.  Give  the  American  a 
ton  of  dynamite  and  a  mountain  of  rock  and  he 
is  happy. 

It  takes  neither  much  intelligence  nor  much 
labor  to  run  a  tunnel  into  the  mountain,  to  ex- 
cavate a  chamber,  to  fill  it  with  explosives,  to 
turn  on  an  electric  sparker  and  blow  the  ever- 
lasting hills  into  the  air,  afterwards  washing 
away  the  debris  with  a  hydraulic  jet.  It  was 
wonderful  to  make  hydraulic  mining  pay  for 
gold  contents  worth  less  than  $0.05  per  cubic 
yard,  about  one  ten-millionth  part  of  the  mate- 
rial, but  there  was  another  aspect.  The  hill 


104          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

sides  were  denuded,  the  lower  rivers  clogged, 
so  that  the  issue  between  the  farmers  and  hy- 
draulic miners  of  California  was  a  burning 
question  for  many  years.  Yet  as  we  have  seen, 
the  farmer  is  worse  than  the  miner.  We  can 
live  without  gold,  but  we  shall  starve  on  an  ex- 
hausted soil. 

Everywhere  and  always  there  is  tonnage1 
mania,  and  with  it  over-equipment  of  plant, 
too  many  men  and  prodigality  of  material. 
More  capital  is  invested  than  is  necessary.  It 
is  the  materal  asset  that  appeals,  not  the 
greater  value  of  organization  and  skill.  Even  a 
further  step  is  taken  and  tonnage  possibilities 
are  converted  into  stock.  I  knew  one  captain  of 
finance  who  capitalized  the  uncaught  fish  in  the 
sea  and  persuaded  Wall  Street  to  underwrite 
the  securities. 

In  field,  in  forest,  in  railroad  operation  and 
in  manufacturing  shops  there  is  the  same  spirit 
of  tonnage  mania,  lavish  equipment,  under-or- 
ganization.  It  is  good  that  the  farmer  trans- 
ferred the  bulk  of  his  manual  work  to  animals 
and  more  recently  to  machines.  It  is  not  good 
that  his  farm  machinery,  which  ought  to  last 
with  care  for  40  years,  is  used  only  30  days 
each  year,  is  worn  out  and  discarded  in  5  years, 


COMMON  SENSE  105 

after  a  total  average  use  of  only  150  days.  One- 
third  of  the  cost  of  harvesting  and  threshing 
wheat  is  the  depreciation  of  the  farm  ma- 
chinery. 

From  our  forests  we  produced,  in  1850,  5,000 
million  board  feet,  in  1909,  50,000  million  board 
feet,  a  total  of  over  1,000  billion  board  feet,  and 
a  like  amount  has  been  wantonly  or  carelessly 
destroyed. 

Railroad  officials  of  the  highest  rank  and 
largest  experience  have  testified  to  the  loss  of 
ties  by  decay,  to  the  waste  of  fuel,  to  the  enor- 
mous losses  from  inefficient  purchase  and  use 
of  material,  to  the  lack  of  interest  of  employees, 
to  the  detentions  of  freight  cars,  thus  indicat- 
ing inefficiencies  of  material,  inefficencies  of  la- 
bor, and  inefficiencies  of  equipment,  but  thus 
far  they  have  not  ascertained  with  exactitude 
the  extent  of  these  inefficiencies  nor  their  cause. 

Because  for  several  generations  our  big  activ- 
ities have  been  built  up  on  tonnage  ideals,  it 
will  be  exceedingly  difficult  and  disquieting  to 
their  officials  to  change  the  destructive  tenden- 
cies, and  our  whole  industrial  organization  will 
have  to  undergo  sooner  or  later  the  experience 
of  a  certain  large  shop.  The  company  owning 
it  also  owned  large  ore  mines,  lake  steamers, 


106  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

railroads,  coal  mines,  river  barges.  The  main 
business  was  originally  to  make  iron  and  steel. 
To  this  end  blast  furnaces,  converters,  were 
built,  and  to  keep  them  busy  the  contributory 
properties  were  secured.  Each  and  every  part 
from  mine  to  mill  finds  itself  operating  on  a 
tonnage  basis.  The  easiest  way  to  reduce  costs 
is  to  increase  tonnage,  to  put  into  operation 
larger  and  larger  equipment.  Purchasers  want- 
ing thin  sheets  and  small  rods  have  complained 
to  me  of  the  great  difficulty  of  having  their  or- 
ders filled.  There  is  no  tonnage  in  such  orders ; 
they  do  not  help  the  mine,  the  steamers,  the 
railroads,  the  coke  ovens,  the  furnaces,  the  roll- 
ing mills.  To  absorb  the  tonnage,  manufactur- 
ing shops  are  started  to  convert  shapes  and 
rods  into  finished  product,  bridges  or  bolts,  etc. 
One  of  these  shops  was  selected  for  the  appli- 
cation of  efficiency  principles.  On  time-study 
investigation  the  automatic  machines  were 
found  to  be  delivering  but  30  per  cent  of  rated 
capacity,  although  the  shop  was  on  full  time. 
By  discovery  of  and  elimination  of  the  causes 
of  stoppage,  the  output  was  increased  to  67  per 
cent  and  it  was  then  ascertained  that  working 
at  80  per  cent  of  rated  capacity  the  shop  could 
turn  out  more  product  than  required  normally 


COMMON  SENSE  107 

by  the  whole  United  States.  The  shop  is  now 
working  less  than  half  time  and  is  producing 
more  than  it  ever  did  before  on  full  time. 

As  was  formerly  the  case  in  this  shop,  "the 
immediate"  has  been  mercilessly  held  up  to 
every  one  connected  with  American  work.  A 
generation  ago,  all  but  a  few  of  the  railroad 
companies  capitalized  maintenance  and  de- 
clared dividends  out  of  imaginary  earnings. 
The  immediate  obscured  the  future.  There  has 
been  an  improvement  at  the  top,  but  the  minor 
officials  still  exercise  all  their  best  near  common 
sense  in  realizing  near  ideals. 

A  number  of  years  ago  there  was  a  great 
freight  blockade  extending  west  from  Buffalo. 
Every  western  superintendent  was  instructed 
to  forward  no  more  cars.  A  local  superinten- 
dent at  Buffalo  had  gathered  from  far  and 
near  all  locomotives,  unreliable  cripples  as  well 
as  good  power.  The  blockade  became  worse,  as 
the  cripples  hindered  the  good  locomotives  even 
as  women  and  children  would  hinder  a  regi- 
ment of  marching  soldiers.  A  high  official  was 
imported  who  made  quick  work  of  the  trouble 
by  sending  the  cripples  away  from  the  field  of 
battle.  When  it  became  apparent  that  the 
blockade  was  soon  to  be  broken,  word  was  sent 


108  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

west  that  on  a  certain  date  cars  could  be  for- 
warded. A  smart  superintendent  of  a  western 
division  industriously  collected  all  his  locomo- 
tives, arranged  long  trains  of  freight  cars  in  his 
yards  and  on  his  sidings,  and  when  the  hour 
came  he  forwarded  an  avalanche  of  trains  and 
and  cars,  clearing  his  own  divisions,  but  hope- 
lessly clogging  the  next  one.  As  part  of  his 
plan  he  disappeared  from  his  office  so  that  he 
could  not  be  reached  by  higher  authority  and 
his  nefarious  myopic  zeal  be  thwarted.  He 
made  a  tonnage  record,  he  trusted  to  his  equip- 
ment, he  showed  near  common  sense. 

A  railroad  superintendent  had  occasion  to 
send  one  of  his  locomotives  to  the  central  shops 
several  hundred  miles  away  for  repairs.  The 
locomotive  was  quite  capable  of  hauling  a  two- 
thirds  load,  but  this  was  not  permitted  and  the 
locomotive  was  not  even  permitted  to  go  under 
its  own  steam.  It  was  put  in  a  freight  train  and 
bumped  over  the  road  to  its  own  detriment  and 
that  of  the  train  and  track.  The  superinten- 
dent was  adding  to  his  tonnage  record.  This 
tonnage  mania  is  one  of  the  curses  of  American 
practice.  It  had  its  value  a  generation  ago 
when  first  erected  consciously  into  an  operating 
principle  for  blast-furnace  output  and  freight 


COMMON  SENSE  109 

movement  by  the  great  minds  of  Andrew  Car- 
negie and  James  J.  Hill,  but  it  has  wrought 
havoc  when  applied  by  lesser  geniuses  who 
forthwith,  instead  of  thinking  and  planning  and 
organizing,  clamor  for  more  equipment.  The 
epidemic  of  broken  rails  which  discredited  the 
Bessemer  process  and  against  which  railroad 
executives  combined  in  protest  was  brought 
about  by  the  tonnage  mania,  by  the  use  of  piped 
ingots  and  few  passes.  The  physical  and 
psychical  sledge-hammer  blows  of  Mr.  J.  W. 
Kendrick  demonstrated  the  rottenness  of  the 
rails. 

On  one  of  the  great  transcontinental  lines 
a  gravity  grade  was  eliminated  at  a  cost  of 
$5,000,000,  entailing  a  fixed  charge  forever  of 
$1,000  a  day.  The  operating  cost  of  the  helper 
locomotives  able  to  handle  all  the  traffic  up  the 
grade  did  not  exceed  $100  a  day. 

In  the  foundry  of  one  of  the  large  Pittsburg 
machine  shops,  the  castings  for  a  large  engine 
are  made.  Eighty  per  cent  of  the  weight  and 
forty  per  cent  of  the  work  occurs  in  three  or 
four  pieces,  the  flywheel,  the  bed,  the  cylinder.. 
On  the  next  fifteen  per  cent  of  weight  there  is- 
another  forty  per  cent  of  work,  and  in  the  final 
five  per  cent  of  weight  there  is  twenty  per  cent 


110  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

of  the  work.  The  founder,  aiming  at  tonnage, 
molds  the  big  pieces  and  then  clamors  for  more 
work,  urging  the  starting  of  another  engine. 
When  the  engine  parts  reach  the  erecting  floor 
it  proves  almost  impossible  to  secure  the  five 
per  cent  of  missing  small  castings,  involving 
per  ton  eight  times  as  much  work  as  the  larger 
pieces. 

A  structural  shop  orders  the  supplies  from  a 
rolling  mill.  The  big  beams  are  promptly 
shipped,  because  they  add  to  tonnage.  The 
angles  and  smaller  pieces  do  not  come  for  weeks 
or  months.  The  superintendent  of  the  struct- 
ural shop  pleads  for  permission  to  begin  work 
immediately  on  material  not  deliverable  for 
three  months.  He  also  has  a  greedy  eye  on  ton- 
nage. If  permitted  to  do  the  work  ahead  of 
time  he  clamors  for  permission  to  ship  it.  He 
is  always  ahead  on  big  work,  always  behind  on 
small  work. 

In  a  machine  shop  it  is  ascertained  that  a  big 
machine,  a  flange  furnace,  a  bull  riveter,  a 
wheel  lathe,  can  do  certain  classes  of  work  in 
shorter  time.  Very  seldom  is  a  careful  study 
made  of  the  yearly  cost  of  operating  and  main- 
taining the  desired  machine,  or  of  the  quantity 
of  work  that  can  be  diverted  to  it,  or  the  dispo- 


COMMON  SENSE  111 

sition  that  is  to  be  made  of  the  displaced  ma- 
chines. The  efficiency  of  the  existing  machines 
and  men  is  never  ascertained,  because  there  are 
only  a  dozen  shops  in  the  United  States  in 
which  any  scientific  standards  of  men  and  ma- 
chine efficiency  exist.  The  old  machines  may 
be  working  at  60  per  cent  efficiency,  with  a 
standardized  cost  of  $0.90  an  hour  for  machine 
and  man.  New  equipment  costing  $10,000  is 
ordered,  with  a  yearly  machine  rate  alone  of 
$5,000.  If  the  machine  is  used  2,500  hours,  the 
hourly  rate  will  be  $2.00  an  hour.  The  prob- 
ability is  that  it  can  be  used  only  1,250  hours 
in  the  year.  This  makes  the  actual  hourly 
charge  $4.00  an  hour  for  work  which  had  been 
taking  twice  as  long  at  60  per  cent  efficiency 
and  at  a  cost  of  $0.90  an  hour.  At  100  per  cent 
efficiency  it  would  have  taken  only  20  per  cent 
longer  time  than  on  the  new  machine,  the  rela- 
tive costs  varying  from  $1.08  on  the  old  ma- 
chines to  $4.00  on  the  new. 

In  a  plant  a  new  $8,000  machine  was  ordered 
by  the  office  because  it  was  believed  that  certain 
work  was  not  being  deliverd  fast  enough.  It 
was  found  that  the  old  machine  was  working 
less  than  three  hours  a  day.  Had  the  new  ma- 
chine been  bought  it  would  have  increased  per- 


112  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

manently  the  operating  costs  of  the  company 
about  $4,000  a  year. 

In  over-equipped  plants  (most  plants  are 
over-equipped)  if  there  is  an  expensive  ma- 
chine capable  of  working  only  a  few  weeks  each 
year,  the  work  ought  not  to  be  charged  with 
the  tremendous  hourly  rate  required  to  carry 
the  machine.  A  legitimate  hourly  rate  is  based 
on  the  assumption  that  the  machine  works  full 
time  and  the  idle  hours  should  be  charged  to 
overhead  expense.  The  aggregate  of  these 
wasteful  overhead  expenses  is  very  great.  It 
is  common  sense,  the  highest  kind  of  progres- 
siveness,  to  install  a  machine  that  can  cut  down 
the  time  of  work  to  one-half,  and  this  kind  of 
common  sense  is  peculiarly  American,  but  usu- 
ally the  increased  equipment  is  not  yet  needed, 
existing  equipment  is  inefficiently  used  owing 
to  under-organization,  and  the  ill-considered 
additions  are  due  to  the  national  reluctance 
either  to  think  or  to  tire  muscles. 

The  traffic  manager  of  a  great  railroad  ap- 
prehends a  prospective  10  per  cent  increase  in 
business  several  months  ahead.  He  immediate- 
ly insists  on  additional  equipment,  100  more 
locomotives  and  4,000  more  cars,  and  no  one 
stops  to  ascertain  whether  existing  equipment 


COMMON  SENSE  113 

is  working  at  more  than  60  per  cent  efficiency. 
On  the  basis  of  past  experience  the  increase  is 
justified,  but  there  are  many  instances  in  which 
equipment  takes  the  place  of  business,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  boy  who,  starting  a  lemonade  stand, 
does  not  feel  himself  equipped  for  business  un- 
til he  is  provided  with  patent  lemon  squeezers, 
ice  pulverizers,  strainers,  patent  vibrating 
shakers,  a  $50  outfit,  from  which  with  great 
loss  of  time  he  produces  semi-occasionally  luke- 
warm, watery  lemonade  in  dirty,  sticky  glasses. 
He  has  neither  organization,  ideals,  nor  com- 
mon sense,  and  so,  in  his  humble  way,  he 
tumbles  into  the  mistake  of  over-equipment, 
carrying  out  the  national  proclivity  which  pre- 
vents us  from  giving  to  great  industrial  prob- 
lems and  questions  as  much  time  and  analytical 
thought  as  a  good  chess  player  gives  to  his 
game. 

The  American,  from  presidents  of  the  United 
States  or  of  great  corporations  down  to  cubs  in 
office  or  shop,  in  spite  of  his  natural  mother- 
wit,  finds  himself  struggling  against  quick- 
sands of  tradition,  whirlpools  of  immediate 
necessity,  fogs  of  current  practice,  of  near  com- 
mon sense;  and  each  is  in  the  condition  of  the 
great  condor,  the  most  skilled  of  all  flying  birds, 


114          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

whose  nest  and  starting  ledge  is  in  the  face  of 
high  cliffs,  but  who,  once  on  the  ground,  in  a 
fifty-foot  circle  surrounded  by  a  ten-foot  fence 
is  less  able  to  rise  than  a  barnyard  chicken. 

The  elimination  of  waste  through  the  appli- 
cation of  the  efficiency  principle  of  common 
sense  is  a  more  difficult  task  than  the  elimina- 
tion of  waste  from  gold-mining  operations  by 
the  use  of  better  processes.  Better  extraction 
from  ores,  better  exploitation  of  mine  tailings, 
is  easily  attained  by  the  use  of  better  methods, 
which  do  not  in  any  way  clash  with  the  train- 
ing ideals  and  conceptions  of  a  progressive 
manager. 

Better  methods  and  processes,  however 
important,  are  a  minor  part  of  one  single 
efficiency  principle,  the  standardization  of  con- 
ditions ;  but  to  apply  all  the  principles,  a  man- 
ager must  be  born  again,  forgetting  much  that 
he  thought  of  value,  adopting,  adapting,  becom- 
ing adept  in  new  lines  of  thought.  At  the  start 
he  finds  himself  enmeshed  in  an  offensive,  de- 
structive type  of  organization  which  he  must 
use  an  unfamiliar  common  sense  to  modify  and 
remake  into  a  defensive,  upbuilding  type.  Even 
if  he  is  in  a  position  of  highest  authority  at  the 
top,  this  is  not  easy  as  he  must  run  counter  to 


COMMON  SENSE  115 

most  of  the  ideals  and  life-long  practices  of  an 
extended  line  of  subordinates.  If  he  finds  him- 
self many  steps  below  the  top,  he  is  indeed 
caught  between  the  upper  and  nether  mill  stone, 
for  those  above  him  will  treat  his  suggestions 
with  impatience  and  skepticism,  those  below 
him  will  meet  them  with  rebellion.  Even  if  he 
succeeds  in  making  his  organization  construc- 
tive, he  must  then  use  an  unfamiliar  Common 
sense  to  overcome  in  himself  and  others  a  long 
series  of  vague,  discordant,  at  best  opportunist 
and  near  ideals,  substituting  for  these,  not 
Utopian  and  unrealizable,  but  worldly-wise 
standards  as  high  as  the  particular  activity  will 
commercially  stand. 

If  a  manager  has  succeeded  in  modifying  the 
organization,  if  he  has  succeeded  in  emphasizing 
the  governing  ideal  so  that  all  may  understand 
it  and  work  for  it,  he  suddenly  meets  new  diffi- 
culties probably  from  both  customers  and  gov- 
ernment, who  will  make  the  occasion  of  his 
efforts  to  eliminate  waste,  to  make  better  use 
of  materials,  of  labor,  of  equipment,  an  excuse 
to  demand  a  physical  valuation  of  the  material 
property  as  a  basis  on  which  to  regulate  freight 
rates  or  other  charges,  thus  imposing  a  direct 
penalty  on  efficiency. 


116  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

It  is  impossible  to  lay  down  rules  or  to  give 
specific  directions  as  to  how  we  shall  convert 
prejudice  and  ignorance  from  without,  near 
common  sense  within,  into  supernal  common 
sense. 

Near  common  sense  binds  to  the  centre  of  a 
sphere.  Supernal  common  sense  may,  like  a 
star,  survey  the  centre  from  any  part  of  the 
vault  of  heaven,  but  the  Twelve  Principles  of 
.Efficiency,  like  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac, 
^divide  the  heavens  into  twelve  parts,  thus  giv- 
ing us  twelve  different  directions  of  attack  on 
inefficiency. 

To  select  an  upbuilding  constructive  organ- 
ization, carefully  to  determine  and  adhere  to 
ideals,  constantly  to  survey  every  problem  from 
a  lofty  instead  of  near  point  of  view,  to  seek 
special  knowledge  and  advice  wherever  they 
can  be  found,  to  maintain  from  top  to  bottom 
a  noble  discipline,  to  build  on  the  rock  of  the 
golden  rule,  of  the  fair  deal — these  are  the  gen- 
eral problems  which  supernal  common  sense 
must  immediately  solve.  It  will  perhaps  prove 
more  difficult  to  remedy  the  evils  of  over-equip- 
ment, the  direct  result  of  an  elementary  organ- 
ization accustomed  to  deal  with  great  natural 
resources 


THE  THIRD  PRINCIPLE:  COMPETENT 
COUNSEL 


An  army  must  have  its  chief,  its  consulting  aids, 
and  its  ranks;  there  must  be  cog-wheels  as  well  as 
fly-wheels  on  every  machine — each  watch  must  have 
its  main-spring — each  government  its  supreme  head. 
— HERBERT  KAUFMANN. 

Persistence  is  the  key  to  existence.  Success  in- 
'var;_bly  rewards  the  good  fight.  Knowing  what  to 
do  or  how  to  do  it  won't  bring  results.  Action  must 
drive  ability.  The  nail  is  useless  without  the  hammer. 
Courage  is  the  complement  of  knowledge. — HERBERT 
KAUFMANN. 

By  co-ordinating  the  two  elementary  ideals  of  man- 
agement— line,  for  permanence,  authority,  discipline; 
staff  for  development  of  high  functional  efficiency — 
"scientific  management"  restores,  both  to  the  job  and 
the  man,  the  identity — the  individualism — which  under 
ordinary  management  is  lost  by  a  policy  of  wholesale 
dealings  and  mass  relations. — CHARLES  BUXTON  GOING. 

For  all  that  seek  discipline,  hear  me,  ye  great  men, 
and  all  ye  people. — Ecclesiasticus,  33. 

Oh,  Neptune,  thou  canst  save  this  my  little  bark, 
thou  canst  also  engulf  it  and  me.  Nevertheless  I  shall 
steer  it  in  thy  storm  with  all  the  skill  and  strength 
the  gods  give  me. — Prayer  of  Sicilian  Greek  Sailor. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  THIRD  PRINCIPLE:  COMPETENT 
COUNSEL 

WHEN  I  was  a  boy,  hobnobbing  with 
British  boys  in  various  parts  of  Eu- 
rope, we  relied  on  the  manly  art  of 
self-defense,  and  I  was  expected  to  hold  my 
own,  by  my  two  fists,  backed  up  by  my  own 
courage.  We  loathed  the  savate  dexterity  of 
the  French  boy,  the  knife  play  of  the  Dalian 
boy,  the  stone-wrapped-in-handkerchief  sling 
of  the  German  boy,  for  we  considered  such 
methods  of  defense  and  offense  not  according 
to  the  rules  of  the  game.  Nevertheless,  a  well- 
directed  kick  in  the  stomach  from  a  French  boy 
stopped  very  effectually  my  onward  rush,  and 
a  slash  from  a  pocket  knife  in  the  hands  of  an 
hysterical  Italian  boy,  a  leather  belt  loaded 
with  a  heavy  brass  buckle  and  murderously 
swung  by  a  German  boy,  and  other  similar  ex- 
periences taught  me  that  bare  fists,  a  stout 
119 


120  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

heart,  and  supreme  contempt  both  of  the  per- 
sonality and  ethics  of  an  antagonist,  were  not 
sufficient  to  ensure  even  an  honorable  truce, 
much  less  victory;  so  I  compromised  by  carry- 
ing a  club  cane  which  I  had  feloniously  poached 
from  a  king's  preserve,  the  irregularity  of 
acquirement  adding  a  sentimental  value  to  the 
weapon. 

The  early  American  manufacturer,  generally 
of  British  blood,  relied  also  on  his  own  skill  and 
knowledge.  He  was  a  practical  man,  and  if  a 
blacksmith,  iron  was  iron  and  his  own  skill 
mastered  the  material;  if  a  cabinet  maker, 
wood  was  wood,  not  a  veneered  and  inlaid  con- 
coction, and  his  own  skill  mastered  the  ma- 
terials. These  early  leaders  scorned  the 
thought  that  they  needed  lawyer,  purchasing 
agent,  accountant,  bouncer,  private  detective, 
doctor,  chemist,  or  standard-practice  engineer 
to  help  them  run  their  shop  and  business. 
They  believed  in  themselves  as  much  as  their 
contemporary  in  the  presidential  chair,  Andrew 
Jackson,  believed  in  himself.  It  has  been  only 
by  slow  and  reluctant  steps  that  great  Amer- 
ican executives,  heads  of  large  corporations, 
have  acquiesced  in  the  innovation  of  specially 
qualified  advisers.  The  change  has  come  too 


COMPETENT  COUNSEL  121 

fast,  for  there  are  men — Andrew  Carnegie, 
James  J.  Hill,  John  D.  Rockefeller — who  have 
not  only  witnessed  the  change  from  the  simple 
to  the  complex,  but  who  have  themselves  been 
the  mightiest  human  element  in  bringing  about 
the  change.  Human  industrial  giants,  who 
know  as  to  the  whole  scope  so  much  more  about 
a  business  than  any  late  arrival  of  a  specialist, 
may  well  be  excused  for  impatience  and  scepti- 
cism too  often  fully  justified. 

A  great  president  of  a  transcontinental  rail- 
road was  troubled  by  the  flooding  and  washing 
away  of  his  line  on  the  slope  of  a  foot  hill.  His 
engineers  recommended  relocation  of  the  line 
at  a  cost  of  $800,000.  The  old  eagle  called  for 
an  Irish  roadmaster  and  contractor;  out  they 
sped  in  the  president's  special,  and  for  a  whole 
day  they  tramped  the  situation. 

Following  their  conference  and  decisions, 
wing  ditches  were  dug  so  as  to  divert  the  sur- 
face water  around  the  hill  and  away  from  the 
road  bed,  the  remedy  costing  $800  and  proving 
a  complete  success. 

Another  railroad  president  asked  his  engi- 
neering department  to  estimate  the  cost  of 
grading  a  road  in  Texas.  The  estimate  based 
on  experience  elsewhere  was  $800  a  mile.  The 


122  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

veteran  president,  a  frontiersman  from  birth, 
called  in  a  bright  division  superintendent  and 
asked  him  if  he  could  grade  the  extension  for 
$450  a  mile.  Committed  to  the  superintendent 
it  actually  cost  $435.  The  water  chemist  to  the 
same  president  strongly  advocated  a  treating 
plant  at  a  certain  well.  The  president  demurred 
because  it  was  not  at  that  point  that  water  gave 
trouble.  The  chemist  insisted  that  the  water 
showed  more  grains  of  incrusting  matter  than 
at  any  other  point.  The  president  secured  from 
another  official  a  table  showing  the  number  of 
locomotives  taking  water  at  each  of  the  tanks 
and  found,  as  he  expected,  that  very  few  wa- 
tered at  the  bad  tank,  very  many  at  the  good 
tank,  whose  water,  containing  only  half  the 
grains  of  solid  matter,  deposited  ten  times  as 
much  in  the  boilers  because  twenty  times  as 
much  was  used. 

Many  of  the  older  executives  must  today  not 
only  fulfil  their  own  duties  but  in  addition  see 
that  the  inexperienced  one-sided  specialists  do 
not  cause  more  trouble  than  they  cure.  Never- 
theless, best  practice  in  any  line  depends  today 
on  such  a  vast  range  of  experience  and  knowl- 
edge that  no  one  man,  ewn  in  a  very  limited 
field,  can  master  it  all.  No  modern  captain  has 


COMPETENT  COUNSEL  123 

a  pilot's  license  for  all  harbors,  and  the  wiser 
the  captain,  the  larger  the  vessel  he  commands, 
the  more  willing  and  anxious  he  is  to  depend  on 
local  knowledge,  even  if  the  expert  be  an  Arab, 
a  Malay,  a  Kanaka,  a  Maori,  or  an  Eskimo. 

The  trouble  with  the  water-purifying  chem- 
ist was  that  he  was  too  inexperienced,  too  lim- 
ited to  pass  on  the  whole  subject.  His  opinion 
was  valuable  and  sufficient  as  to  the  grains  of 
solid  in  each  water  and  at  that  he  ought  to  have 
stopped. 

Competent  counsel  cannot  come  from  one 
man.  All  around  us  are  the  laws  of  the  uni- 
verse, here  and  there  partly  read  and  codified, 
but  with  many  great  and  partially  traversed 
regions.  Counsel,  direct  or  indirect,  is  wanted 
from  each  man  who  knows  the  most,  so  that 
we  may  not  be  floundering  along  on  last  week's, 
last  month's,  last  year's,  last  decade's,  or  last 
century's  knowledge,  but  use  special  knowledge, 
today  the  possession  of  the  few,  but  destined 
to  become  world  practice. 

High-speed  steel  was  made  known  to  the 
world  by  Messrs.  Taylor  and  White  in  1900. 
In  1903  one  of  the  great  western  railroad  shops 
was  still  without  it;  in  1910  another  railroad 
shop  in  the  Eastern  States  was  discovered 


124  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

taking  18  hours  to  turn  a  pair  of  locomotive 
drivers,  3  hours  being  ample  time  on  the  type 
of  lathe  used.  There  are  facts  about  high- 
speed steel,  the  dimple  of  durability,  for  in- 
stance, as  yet  known  only  to  the  few. 

In  striving  for  industrial  efficiency  of  opera- 
tion, we  have  made  pleas  for  a  different  type 
of  organization — the  defensive,  constructive 
organization  instead  of  the  offensive,  destruc- 
tive organization;  we  have  made  a  plea  for 
definite  high  ideals  instead  of  indefinite  low 
ideals ;  we  have  made  a  plea  for  supernal  com- 
mon sense  instead  of  near  common  sense;  but 
no  radical  change  in  either  point  of  view  or 
practice  is  needed  to  extend  the  use  of  com- 
petent counsel  from  legal,  accounting,  purchas- 
ing, engineering,  and  other  departments  to  an 
efficiency  department. 

The  legal  counselor  of  a  great  corporation  is 
often  a  vice-president,  the  purchasing  agent  is 
often  a  vice-president,  the  chief  engineer  is 
often  a  vice-president,  but  the  efficiency  coun- 
selor is  often  a  subordinate  far  down  the  line 
attached  more  by  accident  than  design  to  some 
special  department. 

The  legal  counselor  extends  his  warning, 
helping,  guiding  hand  to  every  other  depart- 


COMPETENT  COUNSEL  125 

ment.  "You  may  not  do  this  because  it  is  il- 
legal; there  is  reasonable  doubt  as  to  another 
action;  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  another  plan." 
He  does  not  pass  on  finances,  records,  engineer- 
ing, or  efficiency  questions.  The  financial  coun- 
selor stands  against  irregular  expenditures 
however  much  needed;  the  purchasing  agent 
buys  what  is  requisitioned  in  the  best  and  most 
advantageous  market. 

In  the  vanishing  era  of  elementary  achieve- 
ment, efficiency  mattered  not,  but  legality  did; 
therefore  long  ago  lawyers  were  consulted. 
Efficiency  did  not  matter  in  the  building  of  the 
pyramids,  but  engineering  did;  and  from  that 
time  to  this  the  engineer  has  been  supreme  in 
his  own  department.  If  it  were  not  for  the 
lawyer  passing  on  charters,  titles,  agreements, 
there  could  be  no  railroad;  if  it  were  not  for 
the  financiers  raising  sums  far  beyond  the 
power  of  even  the  richest  individual  there  could 
be  no  railroad;  if  it  were  not  for  the  engineer 
who  designs  the  machinery  that  produces  steel, 
who  designs  cars  and  rails,  bridges,  turntables, 
locomotives,  there  would  be  no  railroad;  if  it 
were  not  for  the  traffic  manager  the  rails  would 
rust,  the  cars  stand  empty;  were  it  not  for  the 
operating  executives,  there  would  be  disasters. 


126  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

But  the  railroads  and  industrial  plants  al- 
most without  exception  are  operating  without 
efficiency  counsel,  efficiency  problems  of  mo- 
mentous import  being  decided  off-hand  by  in- 
tuition. Is  it  to  be  concluded  that  efficiency  is 
of  minor  importance? 

At  the  present  moment  the  business  of  the 
country  is  disturbed,  shippers  are  arrayed 
against  railroads  and  railroads  against  ship- 
pers ;  railroad  employees  are  being  urged  to  act 
as  a  voting  unit  against  any  one  who  favors 
legislative  interference  with  railroad  operation. 
Because  it  is  not  competently  advised  from  the 
efficiency  standpoint,  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  prescribes  monstrously  difficult, 
even  impossible  standards,  brushing  aside  the 
accumulated  wisdom  and  experience  of  the 
Master  Car  Builders'  Association.  Because 
they  are  not  competently  advised  by  efficiency 
counsel,  shippers  fight  any  rate  increase,  unable 
to  point  out  wherein  it  is  unreasonable,  the  fact 
being  that  many  present  rates  are  too  low  and 
others  too  high.  Because  they  are  not  com- 
petently advised  as  to  the  economies  in  opera- 
tion and  maintenance  that  would  flow  from 
efficiency,  the  railroads  overlook  the  great  gain 
within  their  grasp  while  they  pursue  the  much 


COMPETENT  COUNSEL  127 

smaller  gain  from  greater  rates  they  may  not 
succeed  in  securing. 

The  total  annual  salary  and  labor  bill  of  the 
railroads  of  the  United  States  in  1908  was 
$1,035,437,528.  There  is  an  impressive  appear- 
ance of  accuracy  in  these  figures  from  which 
we  are  pained  to  miss  the  odd  cents,  but  an 
examination  of  the  sub-divisions  shows  that  the 
average  equivalent  obtained  is  not  quite  80  per 
cent,  that  a  preventable  waste  occurred  of  over 
$200,000,000. 

In  contemplating  this  enormous  waste,  the 
accuracy  of  expenditure  statement  loses  its  im- 
pressiveness,  and  side  by  side  with  these  valu- 
able and  accurate  figures  of  the  expert  accoun- 
tant, we  would  like  to  see  other  figures  from 
the  efficiency  counselor — other  figures  of  far 
greater  practical  import. 

The  other  annual  bills  for  operating  expenses 
were,  in  1908,  $653,780,115,  of  which  about 
$500,000,000  was  for  material.  Is  the  efficiency 
of  material  used  more  than  60  per  cent?  Wher- 
ever it  has  been  carefully  and  scientifically 
checked,  in  railroad  operation,  efficiency  has 
scarcely  reached  40  per  cent. 

The  cost  of  all  railroads  and  equipment  is 
reported  for  1909  at  $14,514,822,308.  Interest 


128  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

at  6  per  cent  and  average  depreciation  of  4  per 
cent  (which  is  low)  gives  an  hourly  charge  of 
$165,694  for  these  two  items.  An  increased  use 
of  4  per  cent  would  amount  to  a  gain  of  this 
amount  each  day,  or  over  $50,000,000  a  year. 
As  the  net  earnings  of  the  railroads  in  1909, 
including  sinking  funds,  were  only  $1,078,132,- 
735,  the  railroads  were  about  $400,000,000 
short  of  earning  6  per  cent  plus  depreciation, 
but  sympathy  is  not  as  great  as  it  would  be  if 
it  were  not  so  evident  that  annual  wastes,  a 
very  large  part  of  them  preventable,  aggregate 
a  sum  larger  than  net  earnings. 

What  the  railroads  have  not  yet  realized  is 
that  natural  expenses  are  progressing  geo- 
metrically and  revenues  are  only  increasing 
arithmetically.  For  a  time  heavier  locomotives, 
larger -cars,  lessened  graces,  longer  trains,  coun- 
teracted the  geometrical  danger,  and  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  higher  efficiency  will  provide  rll 
the  remedy  needed,  whether  competent  counsel 
of  the  highest  order  will  not  become  imperative. 
The  primary  question,  however,  is  not  whether 
inefficiency  costs  the  railroads  $100,000,000  or 
$1,000,000,000  a  year;  but  the  question  is  why 
either  loss  should  occur,  and  whether  it  is  not 
sufficient  to  warrant  competent  counsel. 


COMPETENT  COUNSEL  129 

The  legal  counselor  does  not,  cannot  know  all 
the  laws  and  proper  legal  formalities  in  every 
State,  and  he  therefore  employs  junior  and 
often  senior  counsel.  Similarly  a  counselor  as 
to  efficiency  would  not  pretend  to  be  an  expert 
as  to  all  efficiency,  but  it  would  be  his  duty  to 
be  in  touch  both  as  to  men  and  scientific  reports 
with  all  that  was  latest  and  best  and  make  it 
all  available  for  his  employer  whether  indi- 
vidual or  corporation. 

If  the  corporation  were  large  it  would  be  the 
duty  of  the  efficiency  counselor  to  install  and 
develop  an  efficiency  organization,  extending 
from  top  to  bottom  even  as  the  accounting  de- 
partment extends  from  top  to  bottom.  Each 
minor  official  would  have  his  own  staff  of  effi- 
ciency experts  working  directly  for  him,  but 
also  even  as  the  timekeeper  to  a  superintendent 
is  subject  to  the  comptroller,  so  also  would  each 
efficiency  expert  be  subject  to  the  direction  of 
the  efficiency  officer  above  him. 

The  chief  efficiency  counselor  would  initially 
advise  as  to  type  of  organization;  he  would 
ascertain  what  the  ideals  were  and  strive  for 
their  realization;  he  would  represent  supernal 
common  sense ;  but  it  is  chiefly  as  to  the  stand- 
ardizing of  the  other  operative  principles  that 


130  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

his  organizing  ability  would  be  applied.  In 
most  operating  plants  both  discipline  and  fair 
deal  are  defective,  records  are  neither  reliable, 
immediate  nor  adequate,  despatching  is  so  ele- 
mentary as  scarcely  to  be  beyond  the  stage  of 
putting  into  the  shop  an  order  for  work,  there 
are  few,  if  any,  scientifically  made  work 
schedules,  there  are  no  standard-practice  in- 
structions, no  standardized  conditions,  no 
standardized  operations,  and  efficiency  rewards 
are  defective. 

Competent  counsel  must  permeate  every  effi- 
cient organization,  and  if  competent  counsel 
cannot  be  carried  into  operation,  it  is  because 
the  organization  is  defective,  because  some  staff 
is  lacking,  and  the  staff  that  usually  still  awaits 
creation  is  the  efficiency  staff. 

In  coal  mining  in  the  United  States  the  ques- 
tion is  not  whether  5  per  cent  or  3  per  cent  of 
the  miners  are  killed  each  year,  it  is  not  the 
question  whether  we  kill  more  or  less  than  Eng- 
land kills,  but  the  question  is  why  a  smaller 
per  cent  obtains  in  the  more  dangerous  and 
difficult  Belgian  mines. 

A  cholera  epidemic  raged  lately  in  Europe. 
It  was  particularly  bad  in  Russia,  and  it  made 
headway  in  Italy.  Several  times  in  the  last  few 


COMPETENT  COUNSEL  131 

years  Germany  has  been  infected,  but  each  time 
competent  counsel  has  prescribed  procedure 
which  has  stamped  out  the  disease,  even  as 
measures  advised  and  enforced  by  competent 
counsel  have  stamped  out  yellow  fever  on  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama. 

In  chemistry  more  advance  has  been  made  in 
ten  years  than  in  all  the  previous  time ;  metal- 
lurgy, fifteen  years  ago  was  in  its  infancy.  A 
generation  ago  a  hospital  was  a  charnel  house 
and  a  doctor  a  peripatetic  disseminator  of  con- 
tagion and  infection.  A  generation  ago  sailing 
vessels  were  the  rule  and  ocean  steamers  the 
exception,  and  farming  had  advanced  only  one 
step  beyond  the  Egyptian  or  Assyrian  methods. 
As  this  gigantic  betterment  has  come  because 
there  was  competent  counsel,  so  competent 
counsel  well  deserves  to  be  one  of  the  Twelve 
Principles  of  Efficiency,  and  nowhere  else  is 
competent  counsel  more  needed  than  in  the  ap- 
plication of  the  eleven  other  principles. 


VI 

THE  FOURTH  PRINCIPLE:   DISCIPLINE 


The  universe  wants  new  ways  of  doing  things,  and 
the  new  things  become  old  over  night.  —  HERBERT 
KAIJFMANN. 

Thinking  and  doing  aren't  the  same.  Good  ideas 
are  only  seeds.  They  must  be  planted  and  tilled  be- 
fore they  can  produce. — HERBERT  KAUFMANN. 

My  son,  do  thou  nothing  without  counsel,  and  thou 
shalt  not  repent  when  thou  hast  done. — Ecclesiasticus, 
32. 

Every  purpose  is  established  by  counsel. — Proverbs, 
20,  18. 

Without  counsel  purposes  are  disappointed;  but  in 
the  multitude  of  counsellors  they  are  established. — 
Proverbs,  15,  22. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE   FOURTH   PRINCIPLE:   DISCIPLINE 


Undisciplined — that  is  the  word.  It  is  the  word  for 
all  the  progress  of  the  Victorian  time,  a  scrambling, 
ill-mannered,  undignified,  unintelligent  development  of 
material  resources.  Want  of  discipline !  The  reek  and 
scandal  of  the  stockyards  is  really  only  a  gigantic  form 
of  that  same  quality  of  American  life  that  in  a  minor 
aspect  makes  the  sidewalk  filthy.  Each  man  is  for 
himself,  each  enterprise;  there  is  no  order,  no  pro- 
vision, no  common  and  universal  plan. 

Men  are  makers — American  men,  I  think  more  than 
most  men.  One  sees  the  light  of  a  new  epoch,  the  com- 
ing of  new  conceptions,  of  foresight,  of  large  collective 
plans  and  discipline  to  achieve  them. 

H.  G.  WELLS:  The  Future  of  America,  Chapter  4, 
Section  4. 


A.EXANDER  DUMAS  in  that  most  famous 
of  his  novels,  makes  Monte  Cristo  the 
hero  of  one  episode  of  marvelous  im- 
probability. 

In  Italy  Monte  Cristo  had  accepted  an  invita- 
tion to  breakfast  in  Paris  three  months  later 
and  had  agreed  to  appear  on  the  minute.  On 
the  date  appointed  the  other  guests  were  assem- 
bled, very  skeptical  as  to  the  coming  of  the 
135 


136          THE    PRINCIPLES    OF    EFFICIENCY 

mysterious  Count  of  whom  no  word  had  been 
heard  since  the  invitation.  The  guests  are  im- 
patient— the  host  begs  for  five  minutes  leeway 
— the  clock  begins  to  strike — expectation  rapid, 
ly  sinks  toward  absolute  zero  when  suddenly, 
immaculately  dressed,  Monte  Cristo  appears 
saying  "Punctuality  is  the  politeness  of  kings, 
but  it  cannot  always  be  that  of  travelers  and 
fifteen  hundred  miles  are  not  easily  covered. 
Excuse  the  two  or  three  seconds  I  am  late/* 

It  was  beyond  even  Dumas'  imagination  to 
state  that  Monte  Cristo  started  on  his  long  trip 
also  on  time  and  made  each  stage  of  the  jour- 
ney day  by  day,  hour  by  hour,  on  time.  Under 
the  dependent  sequence  of  personal  arbitrari- 
ness and  unstandardized  road  and  horse  condi- 
tions, it  was  indeed  marvelous  that  he  should 
arrive  within  a  week  of  the  time  set,  much  less 
within  a  day,  an  hour,  or  a  minute. 

Now  hundreds  sweep  over  the  nearly  thous- 
and-mile stretch  between  Chicago  and  New 
York  on  Monte  Cristo's  fraction  of  a  minute 
precision.  They  start  on  the  minute,  they  pass 
each  station  on  the  minute,  they  arrive  on  the 
minute;  if  there  are  delays,  the  passengers 
grumble  mightily  and  the  railroads  pay  rebates. 
The  institution  built  up  on  time  schedules  has 


DISCIPLINE  137 

become  mightier  than  the  man  and  the  man 
is  immensely  benefited  by  the  discipline  of  the 
institution. 

Thirty  jyears  ago  along  the  great  inland 
rivers  of  the  United  States,  the  Ohio,  the  Mis- 
sissippi, the  Missouri,  the  greatest  difference 
was  apparent  between  the  river  towns  and  the 
railroad  towns.  In  the  river  towns  steamboat 
passengers  were  quite  content  to  wait  several 
days,  idling  on  the  levee,  whittling  or  swapping 
yarns  or  doing  the  dolce  far  niente  on  the  hotel 
piazzas.  When  far  up  or  down  the  river  the 
deep  bellow  of  the  boat's  whistle  was  heard, 
day  or  night,  the  sleepy  town  awakened  into 
prodigious  and  spasmodic  activity  until  the  boat 
had  come  and  gone ;  then  it  went  to  sleep  again. 
Clocks  were  not  needed  and  all  business  was 
conducted  on  the  same  easy  lines.  Notes  were 
paid,  not  when  they  were  due,  but  when  the 
crops  were  marketed.  An  Eskimo  who  figures 
years  as  so  many  snows,  months  as  so  many 
moons,  and  days  as  so  many  sleeps,  would  have 
found  the  business  methods  of  the  steamboat 
town  wholly  normal — steamboat  coming  down 
the  river,  great  excitement;  whale  seen  in  the 
offing,  great  excitement — what  was  the  differ- 
ence? In  the  railroad  towns  there  was  a  very 


138          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

different  spirit.  People  had  clocks  in  their 
houses  and  watches  in  their  pockets ;  they  went 
to  the  railroad  station  on  railroad  schedule 
time;  the  coming  and  going  of  the  daily  trains 
became  definite,  regulating  and  educational 
events  even  to  those  who  never  traveled;  they 
fell  into  the  habit  of  keeping  other  appoint- 
ments; they  were  beginning  to  learn  that  the 
institution  was  greater  than  the  individual. 

The  near  discipline  of  the  rich  man  who 
makes  his  servants  await  his  convenience  in 
spite  of  a  definite  program  arranged  by  him- 
self, the  near  discipline  of  some  railroad  mag- 
nates who  more  or  less  disarrange  the  train 
despatching  on  a  whole  system  by  their  lack  of 
observance  of  their  own  special  train  schedule, 
the  near-discipline  that  would  bend  the  sublime 
order  of  the  universe  to  individual  dilatoriness 
as  in  the  story  of  Joshua's  command  to  the  sun 
to  stand  still,  is  not  what  is  meant  by  "Disci- 
pline" as  an  efficiency  principle. 

There  is  the  discipline  of  life  which  leads  us, 
almost  compels  us,  to  follow  the  teaching  that 
comes  to  us  from  intimate  contact  with  the  ex- 
isting order.  "The  wicked  shall  not  live  half 
their  days."  It  is  easier  to  learn  to  fly  than  to 
make  a  landing.  In  a  narrower  sense  we  speak 


DISCIPLINE  139 

of  the  discipline  of  St.  Francis,  of  St.  Dominic, 
of  Ignatius  Loyola,  meaning  not  punishment 
but  a  definite,  regulated  life,  conduct,  and  ob- 
servances. In  the  narrowest  sense  we  use  the 
word  to  denote  the  act  of  punishment  inflicted 
on  a  bad  boy  with  the  object  of  encouraging 
observance  of  prescribed  conduct  or  rules. 

The  word  discipline  thus  has  three — if  not 
more — meanings. 

Adam  began  to  experience  the  discipline  of 
life  when  Eve  became  his  daily  companion; 
discipline  and  the  greater  life  began  in  earnest 
for  both  of  them  when  they  found  themselves 
outside  the  gates,  with  Cain,  Abel  and  Seth 
frisking  around,  for  there  is  no  such  categorical 
imperative  as  the  sharp  outcry  of  a  very  young 
baby.  Adam  and  Eve,  owing  to  lack  of  experi- 
ence and  overvaluation,  spoiled  Cain;  so  being 
undisciplined,  his  exaggerated  personality  could 
not  brook  the  preference  shown  Abel  and  he 
murdered  him. 

Discipline  as  an  efficiency  principle  includes 
all  meanings,  from  lessons  of  life  to  man-inflict- 
ed punishment.  The  greatest  regulator  of  con- 
duct is  the  spirit  of  the  organization. 

I  did  not  like  being  the  only  man  in  a  dress 
suit  at  an  informal  business  men's  dinner  in 


140          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

Boston,  nor  did  I  like  being  the  only  man  in 
flannel  shirt  and  mucklucks  at  a  Nome  ball. 
The  spirit  of  a  place  is  intangible,  but  counts 
far  more  for  either  evil  or  good  than  all  rules 
and  punishments  combined.  So  powerful  is 
this  spirit  that  it  has  been  cynically  said  most 
men  would  have  fewer  conscience  pricks  over 
an  undetected  crime  than  over  a  ridiculed  sole- 
cism. 

Is  it  not  incredibly  short  sighted  to  throw 
to  the  winds  such  mighty  helps  to  discipline  as 
the  spirit  of  the  plant,  the  general  scheme  of 
conduct,  and  to  place  reliance  in  the  undisci- 
plined acts  of  discipline  of  individuals  clothed 
with  a  little  brief  authority? 

Nature  is  a  relentless  disciplinarian. 

Because  the  success  of  the  whole  plant  de- 
pends not  on  its  wealth,  or  its  men,  or  its  prod- 
uct, but  on  its  spirit  and  rule,  penalties  for  per- 
sistent infraction  should  be  relentlessly  severe. 
A  whole  race  is  exterminated  in  Africa  because 
through  ignorance  it  braves  the  bites  of  the 
tse-tse  fly.  If  we  fall  asleep  in  charcoal  fumes 
we  do  not  awake,  if  we  touch  hot  iron  we  are 
burned,  if  we  put  our  heads  under  water  for 
five  minutes  we  drown,  if  we  touch  through 
mistake  a  live  high-voltage  wire,  the  penalty 


DISCIPLINE  141 

may  be  instant  death.  There  are  no  rules  'and 
regulations  about  these  punishments,  they  need 
no  rules  and  regulations. 

The  old  story  runs  that  Eve  and  Adam  were 
banished  from  Paradise  for  eating  a  forbidden 
apple  and  that  all  their  descendants  not  only 
cannot  get  back  except  by  very  special  favor, 
but  will  have  to  spend  all  eternity  in  hell. 
Cain's  punishment  was  also  exclusion;  he  be- 
came a  fugitive  and  a  vagabond,  he  was  not  to 
be  rewarded  for  his  work  and  he  bitterly  com- 
plained that  his  punishment  was  greater  than 
he  could  bear.  One,  Cook,  wrote  a  cheerful 
book  about  scaling  Mount  Bulshaio  and  later 
sent  some  thrilling  messages  about  the  North 
Pole.  Not  because  Peary  accused  him,  which 
most  people  resented,  but  because  his  own 
stories  and  acts  proved  him  a  liar,  he  had  to 
flee,  like  Cain,  into  obscurity  and  oblivion  al- 
though no  man  pursued. 

Enforced  resignation  is  one  of  the  severest 
penalties  in  the  army  and  navy ;  on  a  great  rail- 
road in  the  middle  west  employees  were  rarely 
discharged;  they  worked  themselves  up  or 
down  by  an  automatic  system  of  merit  and  de- 
merit marks.  In  another  great  American  busi- 
ness, a  large  specialty  store,  the  making  and 


142  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

enforcement  of  rules  is  turned  over  to  a  com- 
mittee of  the  employees.  It  is  a  universal  ex- 
perience that  no  judge  is  as  severe  and  unre- 
lenting as  the  more  righteous  contemporary 
with  the  same  temptations  and  opportunities. 
It  is  not  the  child,  the  man,  or  the  older  woman 
who  condemns  Magdalen.  It  is  not  the  child 
who  pities  the  playmate  killed  by  carelessness", 
it  is  not  the  successful  old  man  who  pities  the 
gray-bearded  derelict  who  has  made  a  general 
shipwreck  of  life. 

If  the  spirit  of  the  plant  does  not  drive  an 
undesirable  associate  away,  if  standard  opera- 
tion and  standard  practice,  both  of  which  affect 
conduct,  if  reliable,  immediate  and  adequate 
records,  if  absence  of  efficiency  reward  do  not 
automatically,  effectually  and  peaceably  elimi- 
nate the  undesirable,  it  is  time  for  the  strong 
hand  to  descend.  There  are  certain  all-night 
restaurants  in  the  tenderloin  district  of  New 
York  frequented  by  roysterers  of  both  sexes 
after  the  more  reputable  places  are  closed.  A 
good-natured  tolerance  prevails  for  even  un- 
usual hilarity  and  noise,  but  just  let  any  mis- 
guided guests  try  to  start  something,  they  sud- 
denly find  themselves  seized  and  deposited  out- 
side on  the  car  tracks  with  locked  doors  be- 


DISCIPLINE  143 

tween  themselves  and  joy.  The  disciplinary 
hand  is  resistless,  immediate  and  strong. 

Under  the  best  management  there  are  scarce- 
ly any  rules  and  there  are  fewer  punishments. 
There  are  standard-practice  instructions  so  that 
every  one  may  know  what  his  part  in  the 
game  is,  there  is  definite  responsibility,  there 
are  reliable,  immediate  and  adequate  records 
of  everything  of  importance,  there  are  stand- 
ardized conditions  and  standardized  operations 
and  there  are  efficiency  rewards. 

There  can  be  organization  without  discipline, 
as  in  all  plant  life;  there  can  be  discipline 
without  organization,  as  in  most  animal  life. 
Because  man  has  supernal  ideals;  because,  if 
organization  is  weakened,  the  progress  of  cen- 
turies can  be  lost  in  a  year,  in  a  minute,  as 
during  an  earthquake — the  devil  indeed  catch- 
ing the  hindmost ;  because  our  unstable  human 
organizations,  even  the  integrity  of  the  family, 
depend  on  discipline,  it  becomes  a  fundamental 
efficiency  principle  which  continuously,  vigor- 
ously, never  falteringly  must  enforce  a  series 
of  standards  of  high  individual  or  combined 
conduct. 

"He  that  ruleth  his  spirit  is  better  than  he 
who  taketh  a  city."  Discipline  is  not  arbitrary 


144  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

rules  with  punishment  for  short-comings,  real 
or  imaginary. 

The  tremendous  simplicity  of  the  scheme  of 
the  universe  is  the  real  marvel  of  it  all.  Uni- 
versal attraction  and  universal  repulsion — all 
elements  have  approximately  the  same  atomic 
heat — but  three  principles  underlie  all  life — 
self-preservation,  race-perpetuation  and  the 
proprietary  instinct.  From  a  few  elementary 
laws,  other  universal  laws  spring;  and  any 
near-law  that  cannot  trace  its  parentage 
straight  back  to  one  of  the  supernal  laws,  if 
indeed  there  is  ultimately  more  than  one  su- 
pernal, is  probably  not  even  a  legitimate  near- 
law. 

Fine  manifestations  of  disciplined  perform- 
ance are  the  four  eighteen-hour  trains  each  day 
between  New  York  and  Chicago.  So  unobtru- 
sive is  the  perfect  discipline  that  the  passenger 
sees  no  rules  or  orders  given,  he  does  not  see 
the  far-ahead  light  or  semaphore  signals  that 
govern  progress,  he  sees  still  less  the  tele- 
graphic messages  flashed  by  the  despatchers  to 
the  signal  towers,  he  knows  little  of  the  dupli- 
cate orders  issued  to  conductor  and  engineer. 
The  discipline  is  that  of  the  velvet  paw  armed 
with  the  sharpest  claws,  infraction  possibly 


DISCIPLINE  145 

resulting  in  destruction  of  the  whole  train,  a 
trans-human  punishment;  infraction,  even  if 
there  is  no  immediate  disaster,  resulting  in 
reprimand  or  dismissal. 

Many  years  ago  I  became  interested  in  a 
socialistic  experiment  on  the  shores  of  the  Pa- 
cific. In  that  favored  region  of  mild  climate, 
tall  timber,  waters  teeming  with  fish,  woods 
alive  with  game,  the  earth  covered  with  fertile 
soil,  a  man  and  woman  would  be  justified  in 
starting  married  life  with  a  fish  net,  an  axe 
and  a  spade,  a  cook  pot  and  a  jack  knife.  They 
might  catch  enough  fish  in  a  single  day  to  last 
a  whole  year,  and  if  it  was  not  the  season  for 
fish,  they  could  dig  clams  with  the  spade,  pick 
wild  berries  in  abundance,  and  easily  split 
cedar  logs,  for  canoe  or  hut.  The  skins  of  wild 
rabbits  furnish  blankets  and  clothes. 

It  was  in  this  part  of  the  country  that  a  band 
of  earnest  men  and  women,  some  militant,  some 
supine,  some  altruistic,  some  selfish,  but  all 
dreamers,  resolved  to  start  a  socialistic  colony, 
"to  ease  the  strong  of  their  burden,  to  help  the 
weak  in  their  needs."  Members  were  either  to 
contribute  or  to  work.  Contributing  members 
were  to  pay  $2.50  a  month  to  be  spent  in  the 
purchase  of  land,  implements,  machinery,  and 


146          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

all  else  that  the  colony  could  not  make  for  it- 
self. Working  members  were  to  clear  the 
ground,  erect  buildings,  build  boats,  sawmills. 
Capital  exacting  no  interest,  labor  never  strik- 
ing, were  to  combine  in  making  the  wilderness 
a  paradise. 

The  contributing  members,  in  case  of  disas- 
ter overtaking  them  in  the  outer  world  of  com- 
petition, were  to  have  the  right  to  move  at  once 
to  the  colony  where  they  and  their  children 
would  find  a  ready-made  home,  an  asylum  from 
want  and  poverty,  becoming  working  members 
as  strength  and  ability  permitted.  Ranks  of 
workers  were  to  be  recruited,  partly  from  con- 
tributing members,  partly  by  admission.  The 
plan  seemed  feasible,  especially  as  a  large  tract 
of  valuable  meadow  and  forest  land  was  given 
by  one  of  the  enthusiastic  founders,  a  theoso- 
phistwho  lived  altruism. 

I  spent  some  time  at  this  colony  as  a  visitor. 
I  met  noble  men  and  women,  but  I  also  met 
drones  who  lolled  in  bed  while  others  worked; 
drones  who  expected  to  be  waited  on,  and  as  I 
watched  I  came  to  admire  the  spirit  of  the  bee- 
hive which  ruthlessly  cuts  off  the  wings  of 
useless  drones  and  pushes  them  outside  the  hive 
to  perish. 


DISCIPLINE  147 

I  also  noted  that  capital  and  labor  in  com- 
bination are  not  enough,  that  the  essential  to 
direct  both  is  after  all  the  organizer,  the  dis- 
ciplinarian; and  I  perceived  that  it  was  the 
discipline  of  St.  Francis,  the  discipline  of  St. 
Dominic,  the  discipline  of  Ignatius  Loyola,  that 
made  these  great  monastic  and  religious  orders 
enduring  and  successful  century  after  century, 
even  as  it  was  the  discipline  of  the  Old  Man 
of  the  Mountain  and  his  successors  in  spite  of 
their  atrocious  practices  and  beliefs  that  main- 
tained for  two  hundred  years  the  power  of  the 
sect  of  the  Hashishim  or  Assassins. 

So  great  is  inefficiency  of  all  kinds  every- 
where that  the  application  of  even  this  one 
principle  of  discipline  has  produced  great  re- 
sults through  military  or  church  organizations. 
Just  as  soon  as  a  community  bends  to  disci- 
pline, whether  its  members  are  followers  of 
Romulus,  of  Leonidas,  empires  are  either 
founded  or  shattered,  and  just  a  little  disci- 
pline as  to  dress  and  work  has  made  such 
American  communities  as  the  Shakers,  Econo- 
mites,  Mennonites,  wealthy.  In  the  army,  as 
in  the  church,  the  first  vow  is  obedience ;  and  in 
Schiller's  ballad  the  slaying  of  the  dragon  did 
not  save  St.  George  from  condemnation  and 


148  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

punishment  for  his  disobedience.  The  large 
office  buildings  in  New  York  are  peculiarly  de- 
pendent on  discipline.  They  are  miniature 
cities  in  which  all  municipal  activities,  lighting, 
heating,  cleaning,  transportation,  are  constant- 
ly going  on.  As  long  as  the  tenants  are  present 
from  8  a.  m.  to  5  p.  m.  high  order  is  main- 
tained, but  shortly  after  5  o'clock  discipline 
relaxes,  attendants  raise  their  voices,  begin  to 
smoke  cigarettes,  to  romp,  and  the  conviction 
grows  that  if  these  modern  palaces  were  turned 
over  as  a  possession  to  their  own  trained  at- 
tendants, in  an  incredibly  few  weeks  they  would 
be  marred  and  scarred,  dirty  and  disorderly, 
physically  and  morally. 

Family  life  can  exist  in  the  Gypsy  caravan 
or  in  the  Arab  tent  or  Indian  tepee,  in  the 
wolves'  den  or  in  the  bird's  nest,  but  we  owe 
the  continuance  of  civilization  to  the  citizen 
efficiency  and  standard-practice  engineers,  men 
and  women,  heads  of  great  institutions,  govern- 
ments, corporations  and  enterprises,  who  de- 
sign and  erect  the  firm  skeleton  of  discipline 
that  maintains  in  place  the  units  of  individual- 
ism, lest  the  whole  aggregation  tumble  to  ruin 
at  the  first  shock  in  earth  or  air. 

In  marked  contrast  with  the  vagueness  and 


DISCIPLINE  149 

looseness  of  obligation  and  control  in  the  social 
colony  that  failed,  is  the  high  organization  and 
discipline  of  modern  baseball  teams  in  which 
individual  effort  and  reward  has  been  happily 
combined  with  team  work  and  collective  re- 
ward. In  baseball  each  man  disciplines  him- 
self ;  to  this  is  added  the  discipline  of  the  team, 
and  on  top  comes  the  discipline  of  the  league. 
Without  high  individual  standards,  without 
team  codes  enthusiastically  lived  up  to,  without 
severe  penalties  to  enforce  obedience  to  the  um- 
pire and  peace  between  the  teams,  the  modern 
game  would  be  impossible.  It  is  the  spirit  of 
discipline,  not  its  letter,  that  counts,  and  the 
spirit  is  reciprocal  from  bottom  to  top,  from 
top  to  bottom  and  sideways  to  all  associates ;  it 
is  reciprocal  between  the  individual  and  the 
flag  under  which  he  is  industriously  enlisted. 

I  have  been  asked  why  "co-operation"  was 
not  to  be  considered  as  one  of  the  twelve  basic 
principles  of  efficiency.  Common  ideals  striven 
for  by  a  disciplined  organization,  supernal 
common  sense  which  forgets  the  little  for  the 
sake  of  the  larger  achievements,  necessarily  re- 
sult in  co-operation,  even  as  the  bees,  having 
accumulated  a  full  store  of  honey,  seem  to  obey 
a  queen,  who  "as  it  happened  with  many  a  chief 


150          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

among  men,  appearing  to  give  orders,  is  him- 
self obliged  to  obey  commands,  far  more  mys- 
terious than  those  he  issues  to  his  subordinates." 
The  fundamentals  of  discipline  are  in  fact  bet- 
ter learned  from  the  government  of  a  beehive 
than  from  college  courses,  from  armies,  or 
from  any  industrial  organization.  No  bee  ap- 
pears to  obey  any  other  bee,  no  bee  seems  con- 
sciously to  co-operate  with  any  other  bee,  yet 
so  perfect  is  the  "spirit  of  the  hive"  that  every 
bee  engrossed  in  her  special  task,  fatalistically 
acts  on  the  instinct  that  all  other  working  bees 
are  also  as  busy  for  the  common  good,  and 
when  the  drones  fail  to  be  useful  the  working 
bees  become  consciously  indignant  and  make 
away  with  them.  Co-operation  is  a  matter  of 
course,  not  a  virtue ;  its  absence  is  the  crime. 

Supernal  discipline  is  inspired  by  a  greater 
emotion  than  fear. 

Frank  T.  Bullen,  in  his  story  praised  by  Kip- 
ling, "The  Cruise  of  the  Cachalot,"  describes  the 
high  type  of  reciprocal  faith  that  in  great 
emergency  resulted  in  a  perfect  discipline,  and 
the  story  in  abbreviated  quotation  illustrates 
what  is  meant  by  discipline  inspired  by  faith. 

At  Port  William,  New  Zealand,  two  whale  ships  lay, 
the  Tamerlane  and  the  Chance.  The  American  Tamer- 
lane was  neat,  smart,  and  seaworthy,  but  the  colonial 


DISCIPLINE      ^  151 

Chance  looked  like  some  poor  relic  of  a  by-gone  day. 
Old  she  was  with  an  indefinite  antiquity,  carelessly 
rigged  and  vilely  unkempt,  but  the  old  Chance  made  a 
better  income  for  her  fortunate  owners  than  any  of 
the  showy,  swift,  coasting  steamers.  Captain  Gilroy, 
familiarly  known  as  "Paddy,"  the  master  of  the  Chance, 
was  unsurpassed  as  a  whale  fisher  or  seaman  by  any 
Yankee  that  ever  sailed  from  Martha's  Vineyard. 
He  was  a  queer  little  figure  of  a  man — short,  tubby, 
with  scanty  red  hair  and  a  brogue  thick  as  pea  soup. 
Overflowing  with  kindliness  and  good  temper,  his  ship 
was  a  veritable  ark  of  refuge  for  any  unfortunate  who 
needed  help,  which  accounted  for  the  numerous  de- 
serters from  Yankee  whalers  who  were  to  be  found 
among  his  crew.  Whaling  skippers  hated  him  with 
ferocious  intensity,  and  but  for  his  Maori  and  half- 
breed  body-guard  he  would  have  been  killed.  On  that 
storm-beaten  coast  he  knew  every  rock  and  tree  in 
fog  or  clear,  by  day  or  night,  he  knew  them  as  the 
seal  knows  them,  and  feared  them  as  little.  His  men 
adored  him,  they  believed  him  capable  of  anything  and 
would  as  soon  have  doubted  daylight  as  the  wisdom  of 
his  decisions.  One  common  interest,  their  devotion  to 
their  commander,  united  the  very  mixed  crowd,  six- 
teen European  and  American  sailors,  twenty-four 

Maoris    and    half-breeds The    Chance 

was  there  and  three  other  whalers,  competitors.  With- 
out any  warning  the  wind  flew  around  into  the  north- 
ward, putting  the  four  ships  at  once  into  a  most 
perilous  position,  and  there  to  leeward  loomed  grim 
and  gloomy  one  of  the  most  terrific  rock-bound  coasts 
in  the  world.  The  Chance  was  a  good  mile  and  a  half 
nearer  the  shore.  The  sea,  gathering  momentum  over 
an  area  extending  right  around  the  globe,  hurls  itself 
upon  these  rugged  shores.  As  the  craft  drifted  help- 
lessly down  upon  that  frowning  barrier,  excitement 
grew  intense.  It  would  not  be  possible  for  them  to 
escape  if  they  persisted  in  holding  on,  but  it  was  easy 
to  see  why  they  did  so.  Paddy,  far  to  the  leeward, 
was  in  much  more  imminent  danger  and  it  would  be 
derogatory  in  the  highest  degree  to  the  reputation  of 
the  other  captains  were  they  to  slip  and  run  before 
he  did.  He,  however,  showed  no  sign  of  doing  so,  al- 


152  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

though  they  all  neared  that  point  from  whence  no 
seamanship  could  deliver  them  and  where  death,  in- 
evitable, cruel,  awaited  them.  A  gigantic  barrier  of 
black  naked  rock  rose  seven  or  eight  hundred  feet 
sheer  from  the  sea.  Nothing  broke  the  immeasurable 
landward  rush  of  the  majestic  waves  towards  this 
world-fragment.  Against  this  perpendicular  barrier 
they  hurled  themselves  with  a  shock  that  vibrated  far 
inland  and  a  roar  that  rose  over  the  continuous  thunder 
of  the  tempest-driven  sea.  High  as  was  the  summit 
of  the  cliff,  the  spray  rose  higher  so  that  the  whole 
front  of  the  great  rock  was  veiled  in  filmy  wreaths'  of 
foam. 

Towards  this  dreadful  spot  the  four  vessels  were 
being  resistently  driven.  Suddenly,  panic-stricken, 
tfre  ship  nearest  the  Chance  gave  a  great  sweep  round 
onto  the  other  tack.  They  had  cut  adrift  from  their 
whale,  terrified  beyond  endurance  into  the  belief  that 
Paddy  was  going  to  sacrifice  himself  and  his  crew  in 
the  attempt  to  lure  them  with  him  to  inevitable  de- 
struction. The  other  two  did  not  hesitate  longer. 

The  Chance  drew  in  closely  to  the  seething  cauldron 
of  breakers. — Who  among  sailor  men  having  seen  a  ves- 
sel disappear  from  their  sight  under  such  terrible  con- 
ditions ever  expected  to  see  her  again? 

It  appeared  that  none  of  the  white  men  on  board,  ex- 
cept Paddy,  had  ever  before  been  placed  in  so  seem- 
ingly hopeless  and  desperate  a  position,  and  yet  when 
they  saw  how  calm  and  free  from  anxiety  their  com- 
mander was,  how  cool  and  business-like  the  attitude  of 
all  their  dusky  shipmates,  their  confidence  kept  its 
usual  high  level.  The  test  was  of  the  severest,  for  to 
their  eyes  no  possible  avenue  of  escape  was  open.  Along 
that  glaring  line  of  raging,  foaming  water  not  the 
faintest  indication  of  an  opening.  The  great  black  wall 
of  rock  loomed  up  grim  and  pitiless.  All  stood  mo- 
tionless with  eyes  fixed  in  horrible  fascination  upon  the 
indescribable  vortex  to  which  they  were  being  irresist- 
ibly driven.  At  last,  just  as  the  fringes  of  the  back- 
beaten  billows  hissed  up  to  greet  them,  the  ship  plunged 
through  the  maelstrom  of  breakers — they  were  on  the 
other  side  of  that  barrier,  the  anchor  was  dropped,  the 
vessel  rested  like  a  bird  in  her  nest  on  a  deep  still  tarn, 


DISCIPLINE  153 

shut  in  on  every  side  by  huge  rock  barriers.  Of  the 
furious  storm,  but  a  moment  before  nowling  and  rag- 
ing, nothing  remained  but  a  thunderous  hum,  and  high 
overhead  the  jagged,  twisted,  tortured  cloud,  whirling 
past  their  tiny  oblong  of  sky. 

Such  a  feat  of  seamanship  was  almost  beyond  belief. 
The  little,  dumpy,  red-faced  figure,  rigged  like  a  scare- 
crow, bore  no  outward  visible  sign  of  a  hero,  but  in 
our  eyes  he  was  transfigured,  as  one  who  in  all  those 
qualities  that  go  to  the  making  of  a  man  had  proved 
himself  of  the  seed  royal,  a  king  of  men,  all  the  more 
kingly  because  unconscious  that  his  deeds  were  so 
exalted. 

If  this  disreputable  little  Irishman  in  the 
midst  of  filth  and  inadequacy  could  maintain, 
by  qualities  of  soul  alone,  a  discipline  so  ad- 
mirable among  a  crew  of  flotsam  and  jetsam 
under  stress  so  terrible,  what  ought  not  to  be 
accomplished  by  leaders  with  all  the  advan- 
tages of  education,  experience,  organization, 
with  picked  crews  of  workers?  Unless  I  know 
that  the  employer  is  without  fault,  unless  I 
know  that  he  is  struggling  with  an  inherited, 
vicious  condition,  I  have  no  patience  with  so- 
called  labor  troubles,  almost  always  due  to  neg- 
lect of  elementary  precautions  for  the  common 
benefit  of  master  and  man.  There  is  at  least  one 
large  business  aggregation  in  the  United  States 
in  which  a  strike  is  unthinkable  because  it  is  a 
coveted  privilege  to  be  admitted  to  it  as  a 
worker,  a  catastrophe  to  be  cast  out,  and  so 


154  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

high  is  the  morale  that  the  workers  themselves 
make  and  maintain  standards  of  conduct  far 
stricter  than  any  usual  employer  would  dare 
to  enforce,  although  he  may  print  and  post 
rule  after  rule. 

The  time  to  inspect  boiler  sheets  is  before 
they  are  made  up  into  steam  boilers;  the  time 
to  inspect  anchor  chains  is  in  the  making,  not 
when  the  great  steamer  is  straining  with 
broken  machinery  to  the  windward  of  the  Scilly 
Islands  in  a  midwinter  storm.  In  all  industrial 
life  everything  is  tested,  materials,  design,  ex- 
cept the  all-important  men.  In  the  little  shop, 
rigidity  of  human  inspection  is  high,  the  master 
looks  over  each  man,  has  probably  watched  him 
for  months  or  years  before  engaging  him ;  but 
in  the  large  shop,  where  personal  inspection  by 
the  master  has  become  impossible,  even  the  most 
elementary  safeguards  are  thrown  to  the  winds 
and  men  are  absorbed  with  less  discrimination 
than  the  furnace  under  the  boiler  absorbs  air. 

No  man  enters  West  Point  without  passing 
severe  elementary  examinations.  It  is  a  tre- 
mendous privilege  to  be  admitted,  a  disaster  to 
be  excluded.  There  ought  to  be  a  high  member- 
ship ideal  for  every  plant,  no  newcomer  admit- 
ted who  is  not  fit  in  every  way,  no  man  cut 


DISCIPLINE  155 

off  except  for  cause.  Discipline  begins  before 
the  applicant  is  taken  on.  Nine-tenths  of  all 
the  harder  discipline  ought  to  be  applied  to  ex- 
clude undesirables,  men  who  by  reason  of  bad 
character,  bad  and  offensive  habits,  destructive 
tendencies,  laziness  or  other  faults  are  unfit  to 
become  working  members  of  a  high-class  or- 
ganization. It  is  before  he  is  admitted  that  the 
applicant  should  hear  of  the  ideals  of  the  busi- 
ness, of  its  organization,  of  its  methods. 

On  the  Yukon  we  divided  men  into  two 
classes,  the  competent  scoundrels  and  the  in- 
competent goody-goodies.  If  it  is  a  duty  to  ex- 
clude the  morally  unfit,  it  is  also  a  duty  to  ex- 
clude more  vigorously  from  any  particular  oc- 
cupation those  who  are  congenitally  unfitted  to 
make  a  success  of  it.  A  blind  man  may  become 
a  self-supporting,  useful  and  successful  mem- 
ber of  society,  a  man  born  without  legs  may 
become  the  successful  owner  and  operator  of  a 
livery  stable,  driving,  harnessing  and  unhar- 
nessing horses,  but  a  blind  man  cannot  act  as 
the  lookout  on  an  ocean  steamer,  the  deaf  man 
cannot  lead  an  orchestra,  and  the  legless  man 
cannot  become  a  foot  racer. 

A  few  hours'  investigation  would  determine 
whether  an  applicant  for  a  working  position 


156          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

were  really  qualified,  but  the  few  hours  are 
rarely  given. 

The  type  for  the  great  newspaper  is  set  up 
by  linotype  operators.  Apprenticeship  is  rig- 
orously limited.  Some  operators  can  never  get 
beyond  the  2,500-em  class,  others  with  no  more 
personal  effort  can  set  5,000  ems.  Do  the  em- 
ployers test  out  applicants  for  apprenticeships 
so  as  to  be  sure  to  secure  boys  who  will  de- 
velop into  the  5,000-em  class?  They  do  not. 
They  select  applicants  for  any  near  reason  ex- 
cept the  fundamentally  important  one  of  innate 
fitness.  It  is  not  a  question  of  wages,  though 
payment  is  for  timework,  but  it  is  a  question 
of  rapidity,  of  more  news  at  a  later  hour,  of  a 
better  utilization  of  an  expensive  machine,  of 
lessened  rent  for  space — in  fact,  of  greater  out- 
put in  less  time  at  less  cost. 

In  railroading,  why  should  each  conductor 
and  engineer  be  compelled  to  secure  a  watch  of 
the  best  grade,  why  should  this  watch  be  peri- 
odically inspected,  yet  the  future  conductors 
and  engineers  be  recruited  in  the  most  hap- 
hazard fashion?  There  is  scarcely  any  greater 
or  crueler  injustice  to  a  boy  or  to  a  young  man 
than  to  allow  him  to  enter  on  a  career  for 
which  a  competent  examining  committee  would 


DISCIPLINE  157 

tell  him  he  was  unfit,  there  being  other  careers 
for  which  he  is  better  adapted. 

In  coal  mining,  seams  of  coal  with  bands  of 
slate,  clay,  or  dirt  are  not  mined,  or  the  coal 
is  carefully  picked  over,  or  washed ;  in  lumber- 
ing all  material  is  graded,  millions  of  feet  of 
inferior  grade  being  burned;  in  wheat  raising 
the  farmer  strives  to  attain  grade;  standards 
are  devised  and  rigidly  adhered  to  in  the  live- 
stock markets;  but  a  company  building  cars  or 
running  a  factory  or  mining  coal  will  engage 
and  employ  almost  anyone  that  applies  for 
work,  who  is  not  under  age,  over  age,  or  abso- 
lutely crippled. 

The  master  organizer,  whether  saint  or  as- 
sassin, does  not  admit  those  who  would  make 
trouble  and  he  thus  avoids  nine-tenths  of  pos- 
sible insurrection;  the  master  organizer  cre- 
ates a  collective  spirit  that  prevents  another 
nine-tenths  of  disciplinary  troubles,  a  depen- 
dent sequence  that  brings  his  remnant  of  in- 
subordination down  to  one  per  cent  of  the  usual 
and  possible  and  with  this  one  per  cent  of  rem- 
nant he  easily  deals. 

As  I  write,  the  morning  papers  contain  three 
items.  "Manchester,  England;  The  Federation 
of  Master  Cotton  Spinners  has  locked  out 


158  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

130,000  men.  Berlin,  Germany;  Negotiations 
with  the  object  of  preventing  a  lockout  of  the 
metal  workers  have  failed.  Nearly  100,000  men 
are  affected  in  Berlin  alone,  it  is  estimated 
that  at  least  500,000  throughout  Germany  will 
be  turned  out.  Paris,  France;  80,000  strikers 
tie  up  railroads.  Entire  country  may  soon  be 
involved." 

Whatever  the  merits  of  the  cases,  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  most,  if  not  all,  the  principles  of  ef- 
ficiency were  flagrantly  absent  in  these  three 
great  disputes.  In  the  case  of  the  cotton  spin- 
ners the  story  runs  that  a  foreman  discharged 
a  worker  because  he  objected  that  certain  as- 
signed work  was  not  in  his  line.  Ought  it  to 
be  possible  for  two  men  in  the  bottom  ranks  of 
a  great  business  to  bring  on  a  strife  involving 
130,000?  Were  his  duties  made  clear  to  the 
worker  before  he  entered  the  company's  em- 
ploy? Ought  the  foreman  to  have  had  the 
power  to  discharge  him  for  an  objection,  on  its 
face,  entirely  reasonable  and  sustained  by  his 
fellow-workers?  In  this  dispute  we  have  the 
old-type,  arbitrary,  anarchical  organization  of 
both  masters  and  men ;  defective  discipline,  re- 
jection of  competent  conciliatory  counsel,  pain- 
ful absence  of  common  sense,  no  high  ideals. 


DISCIPLINE  159 

Under  efficiency  principles  there  would  have 
been  staff  advisers  to  invent  and  build  up  safe- 
guards against  catastrophes  of  this  nature, 
just  as  levees  are  built  along  the  banks  of 
rivers  inclined  to  flood.  Trouble-making  men, 
whether  workers  or  foremen,  could  neither 
have  gone  on  the  payroll  nor  have  stayed  on  it. 
There  would  have  been  staff  conciliators  whose 
business  it  would  be  to  take  in  hand  incipient 
emotional  flames  and  smother  them  before  they 
grew  into  great  conflagrations. 

The  principles  of  efficiency  are  not  vague 
platitudes;  they  are  intensely  practical,  tested, 
tried  out,  and  successful.  The  strong  leader  who 
employs  them  prevents  wastes,  prevents  the 
losses  caused  the  State  and  community  by  the 
cessation  of  labor  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
men,  prevents  the  greater  misery  and  suffering 
due  to  the  enforced  idleness  of  heads  of  fami- 
lies. While  master  and  man  quarrel  and  bicker, 
the  State  suffers  and  women  and  children  pay 
the  penalty.  Socialism  gains  recruits  not  from 
the  arguments  of  its  advocates,  since  no  human 
being  is  naturally  a  socialist,  but  from  the  un- 
endurable shortsightedness  and  shorter  temper 
of  individualistic  men. 

It  is  not  enough  for  the  owners  to  have 


160  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

ideals;  they  must  be  transmitted  to  the  em- 
ployee, and  nothing  is  easier,  as  any  one  who 
has  studied  the  psychology  of  crowds  knows; 
but  it  is  idle  to  expect  the  average  worker  to 
rise  above  the  spirit  of  the  place  he  works  in. 
If  it  is  untidy,  disorderly,  filthy,  if  the  accom- 
modations for  his  necessities  are  lacking  or 
vile — saw-tooth  lighting,  compound  condensing 
engines,  imposing  steel  and  concrete  construc- 
tion, and  all  the  over-equipment  to  which  in 
the  past  we  have  pinned  our  faith,  will  not  in- 
spire the  worker. 

On  one  occasion,  beginning  an  investigation 
of  a  great  machine  shop  employing  one  thou- 
sand men,  I  went  the  first  morning  at  half- 
past  six  to  the  power  house.  It  was  a  dark 
day  early  in  February,  temperature  8  degrees 
below  zero  and  the  shops  were  none  too  com- 
fortable. When  the  whistle  blew  at  seven 
o'clock  I  watched  the  ammeter  line.  The  power 
consumption  rose  instantly  to  what  proved  to 
be  the  average  maximum  and  it  stayed  up.  I 
returned  at  11 :30  and  watched  the  ammeter 
line  stay  up  until  11 :57,  at  which  time  the  rec- 
ord, reliable,  immediate,  and  adequate,  began 
to  round  off,  suddenly  dropping  as  the  noon 
whistle  blew.  It  came  up  again  at  1  o'clock 


DISCIPLINE  161 

and  stayed  up  until  6  o'clock.  The  two  paral- 
lelograms were  very  different  from  the  flat- 
tened records,  shaped  like  half  ellipses,  so  usual 
in  similar  shops.  It  was  evident  that  the  su- 
perintendent was  a  man  of  discipline,  and  the 
opinion  I  formed  in  that  forenoon  of  his  ability 
was  confirmed  by  three  years'  intimate  asso- 
ciation. It  was  his  practice  to  enter  the  shop 
at  6 :30  a.  m.  to  stay  until  after  6  p.  m.,  and  I 
heard  him  severely  reprimand  a  foreman  for 
allowing  the  superintendent's  father,  a  worker 
in  the  shop,  to  take  off  his  overalls  five  minutes 
before  closing  time.  Men  worked  enthusiasti- 
cally, loyally,  and  reliably  for  this  master  of 
men. 

The  way  to  guard  against  trouble  is  to  make 
the  position  desired  by  a  superior  man,  to  al- 
low it  to  be  filled  only  by  a  superior  man,  to 
maintain  the  position  at  a  high  level.  If  the 
owners  and  managers  of  a  plant  of  any  kind 
are  orderly,  enthusiastic,  loyal  to  the  work, 
punctual,  courteous,  decent,  competent ;  if  they 
feel  their  obligations  toward  those  they  direct ; 
if  they  are  honest,  economical,  diligent  and 
sound  in  health,  they  can  well  demand  similar 
qualities  in  all  the  employees.  I  have  placed 
order  first,  believing  in  the  spirit  of  the  pro- 


162          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

verb  that  order  is  nature's  first  law  and  also 
the  remark  which  Goethe  puts  into  the  mouth 
of  Mephistopheles :  "Make  use  of  time,  it  is  so 
fleeting,  but  order  saves  time."  No  man  ought 
to  be  allowed  to  enlist  who  cannot  start  in 
with  order,  enthusiasm,  loyalty,  reliability, 
who  is  not  courteous  and  decent ;  no  man  ought 
to  expect  to  stay  who  is  not  competent,  a  good 
brainworker,  honest,  economical  and  diligent. 
If  in  addition  he  has  good  health,  so  much  the 
better. 

The  self-executing  discipline  that  is  worthy 
to  be  an  efficiency  principle  is  the  allegiance  to 
and  observance  of  all  the  other  eleven  princi- 
ples, so  that  the  twelve  principles  do  not  be- 
become  twelve  rules  unrelated  to  each  other; 
they  do  not  become  separate  and  easily  dis- 
lodged rails  of  a  fence,  which  is  more  an  indi- 
cation of  boundary  than  a  barrier ;  they  do  not 
even  become  the  iron  palings  of  a  French  fence, 
whose  spacings  as  a  boy  I  had  carefully  tested 
by  my  head,  knowing  that  where  this  member 
could  pass  my  body  could  slip  through — much 
beloved  interstices,  an  ever-ready  path  to  safe- 
ty when  pursued  by  outraged  minions  of  the 
law  or  exasperated  householders  or  other  rep- 


DISCIPLINE  163 

resentatives  of  the  established  order  against 
which  I  was  in  perennial  rebellion.  As  pro- 
moters of  observance  of  arbitrary  rules  to 
which  as  a  free  American  boy  I  had  not  given 
my  assent,  these  elaborate  fences  were  joyful 
failures. 

It  is  otherwise  with  the  rabbit-proof,  dog- 
proof,  hog-proof,  bull-proof,  wire-netting  fence 
whose  meshes  cannot  be  squeezed  apart,  whose 
barbs  punish  familiarity,  which  is  strong 
enough  to  kill  outright  an  animal  running  di- 
agonally against  it. 

The  twelve  principles  of  efficiency  are  the 
strands  of  a  net,  each  interwoven  with  the 
other  so  that  in  reality  the  first  study  of  any 
organization  is  to  find  out  to  what  extent  com- 
mon sense,  competent  counsel,  discipline,  and 
the  other  eight  principles  have  been  applied 
to  the  first  principle,  "Ideals" ;  to  find  to  what 
extent  ideals,  competent  counsel,  and  discipline, 
have  been  applied  to  common  sense;  to  find  to 
what  extent  ideals,  common  sense,  competent 
counsel,  have  been  applied  to  discipline.  Any 
system  or  act  of  discipline  that  cannot  pass  the 
test  of  each  of  the  other  eleven  principles  is 
near-discipline,  not  supernal  discipline — is  a 
remnant  of  arbitrary  individualism,  the  first 


164  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

misstep  in  an  anarchy  that  will  extend  all  the 
way  down  the  line. 

No  efficiency  principle  stands  alone,  each 
supports  and  strengthens  all  the  rest,  each  is 
supported  and  strengthened  by  the  other 
eleven.  They  are  not  as  mutually  interdepen- 
dent as  the  stones  of  an  arch,  each  a  keystone 
which  if  removed  brings  about  the  collapse  of 
all  the  others ;  they  are  more  like  the  stones  of 
a  dome,  any  one  of  which  can  be  taken 
out,  leaving  a  weakened,  but  not  destroyed 
structure. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  FIFTH  PRINCIPLE:  THE  FAIR 
DEAL 


We  have  progressed  so  rapidly  in  material  prosperity 
that  we  have  lost  our  heart  and  our  humanity." — 
W.  L.  Ward. 

Either  side  gets  just  what  it  grabs.  Hence  if  I  were 
a  workman  I  would  go  back  into  the  union  and  fight 
fiercely  for  a  high,  straight  wage  and  eight  hours  and 
if  I  were  an  employer  I  would  battle  for  straight  piece 
work.  To  my  mind  the  matter  of  justice  is  chimerical 
bosh.  Either  side  will  get  just  what  it  has  power  to 
take.  It  is  the  law,  the  fight  of  life.  The  mechanical 
industrial  army  is  now  to  America  what  the  Prsetorian 
Guard  was  to  the  Roman  Empire — at  once  the  support 
and  menace  to  the  country. 

For  this  reason  I  helplessly  turn  to  the  sole  recourse 
of  laughing  at  the  individuals  who  become  flushed  in 
their  earnestness  over  the  details  of  the  struggle.  Nev- 
ertheless I  think  great  work  was  done  on  the  Santa  Fe 
— no  one  better  than  myself  knows  the  obstacles  to 
overcome  in  order  to  make  your  plan  work.  It  seems 
to  have  smoothed  down  in  a  masterful  manner  the 
plumage  ruffled  by  the  antecedent  strike.  While  I  do 
not  personally  believe  in  the  protestation  of  a  desire 
for  fair  play,  you  seem  to  have  convinced  notable  rep- 
resentatives of  both  sides  of  the  plausibility  of  an  im- 
possibility."— Extract  from  letter  written  July,  1907, 
by  the  associate  editor  of  "the  oldest  journal  and  the 
leading  journal  of  its  kind,  published  at  the  greatest 
railway  center  in  the  world." 

We  have  ventured  to  place  the  extract  above  in  im- 
mediate juxtaposition  to  Ward's  dictum,  because  it  is  a 
specific  definition  of  the  mental  attitude  of  the  employ- 
ing class  which  is  the  most  serious  obstacle  in  the  way 
to  a  better,  a  more  efficient,  order.  It  formulates  the 
doctrines  to  which  the  Twelve  Principles  of  Efficiency 
are  an  earnest  gospel  of  dissent. 

Justice  without  discretion  may  do  much;  discre- 
tion without  justice  is  of  no  avail. — CICERO. 

Most  of  man's  misfortunes  are  due  to  man. — PLINY. 


VII 

THE  FIFTH  PRINCIPLE:  THE  FAIR 
DEAL 

THIRTY  years  ago  there  was  a  deep-worn 
trail  leading  from  the  plains  of  Texas 
to  the  forks  of  the  Platte,  a  distance  of 
800  miles.  This  trail  I  could  recognize  by  its 
furrowed  hollows  if  I  drove  across  it  in  darkest 
night.  Long-horned,  wild-eyed,  cat-hammed 
Texas  steers,  half  a  million  in  a  season's  drive, 
slowly  grazed  northward,  bringing  Texas 
fever  with  them.  The  heifers  were  retained  in 
Texas  to  become  the  dams  of  other  inferior 
long-horns.  All  this  is  changed.  Short-horn, 
Hereford,  Galloway  bulls  have  resulted  in 
graded  short-horn,  well-rounded,  well-man- 
nered progeny  which  travels  north  in  palace 
stock  cars  and  there  is  strict  quarantine 
against  Texas  fever. 

The  best  basis  for  peace,  for  harmony,  for 
high  performance,  is  selection  of  the  human 
167 


168  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

thoroughbreds,    exclusion    of   the    undesirable 
human  Texas  long-horns. 

It  is  in  this  manner  that  our  future  officers, 
military  and  naval,  are  recruited.  Having  been 
carefully  selected  by  education  tests,  by  physical 
measurements,  and  with  some  reference  to 
moral  antecedents,  they  are  then  given  the 
fair  deal.  There  is,  therefore,  owing  to  these 
elementary,  obvious  but  insufficient  pre- 
cautions, a  diminution  in  the  army  and  navy 
(compared  to  civil  and  industrial  organizations) 
of  dishonesty,  of  boorishness,  of  flagrant  going 
wrong.  During  good  behavior  they  remain; 
their  promotion  is  sure  although  slow,  their 
position  is  high,  they  are  welcome  guests  in 
society  and  at  the  most  exclusive  clubs. 

Should  not  these  simple  selective  practices 
based  on  several  thousand  years  of  experience 
be  taken  to  heart  by  industrial  organizers  ? 

The  captain  of  a  whaler  recruits  his  motley 
crew  by  fraud  and  violence  and  rules  them  with 
the  discipline  of  the  Old  Testament :  eye  for  eye, 
tooth  for  tooth,  hand  for  hand,  foot  for  foot, 
burning  for  burning,  wound  for  wound,  stripe 
for  stripe,  lex  talionis  in  all  its  hideousness.  He 
who  recruits  his  shop  with  scarcely  more  dis- 
crimination, who  does  not  even  attempt  to  find 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  169 

out  whether  the  young  applicant  is  suited  men- 
tally, physically,  and  above  all  in  capacity  for 
what  is  to  be  a  life  work,  who  does  not  attempt 
to  find  out  whether  the  itinerant  applicant  is 
morally  and  industrially  a  fit  associate  for  the 
other  men,  an  acquisition  or  a  detriment — a 
near-organizer  of  this  kind  must  necessarily 
rely  on  foremen  as  arbitrary  and  undisciplined 
as  himself,  must  necessarily  rely  on  physical 
rather  than  on  moral  suasion. 

The  name  of  Leonidas  has  thundered  down 
the  ages.  When  Xerxes  invaded  Greece  with  an 
army  of  a  million  men  recruited  from  forty-six 
nations — almost  as  many  nations  as  are  repre- 
sented in  the  great  Pittsburg  shops — he  of- 
fered Leonidas  the  kingship  of  all  Greece,  but, 
spurning  this  offer,  the  King  of  Sparta  selected 
only  8,000  men  from  the  quarreling  Greek  con- 
tingents. When  the  pass  of  Thermopylae  was 
turned  through  the  treachery  of  a  Greek, 
Leonidas  excluded  and  sent  away  all  his  allies 
except  700  Thespians,  and  with  these  and  his 
300  Spartans  remained  to  do  battle  as  long  as 
one  remained  alive.  The  more  select  the  force 
the  greater  its  efficiency. 

When  we  see  ill-mannered  children  we  blame 
the  parents,  not  the  children;  on  the  dreadful 


170  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

Yukon  winter  trail  in  1900  some  men 
treated  and  maimed  their  unruly  dogs  until  the 
Northwest  mounted  police  had  to  interfere,  but 
more  carefully  selected  dogs,  showing  all  the 
eager  soul  that  Maeterlinck  imputes  to  them, 
came  joyfully  jumping  around  their  better 
master,  ready  to  die  at  his  bidding. 

The  fair  deal,  based  on  the  exclusion  of  the 
many,  the  selection  of  the  few,  must  primarily 
spring  from  the  master,  not  from  the  man, 
"With  what  measure  the  employer  metes  it 
shall  be  measured  to  him  again,  therefore  all 
things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do 
to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them."  But  mere  kind- 
liness of  heart,  mere  desire  to  be  fair,  does  not 
accomplish  anything.  Most  boys  would  be 
better  off  in  a  severe  school  than  under  their 
loving,  indulgent  and  weak  mothers. 

A  railroad  brakeman  was  put  on  the  carpet 
by  a  superintendent.  He  came  out  from  the 
ordeal  and  exclaimed:  "That  is  the  whitest 
man  who  ever  lived."  "Did  he  reinstate  you?" 
asked  his  companions.  "Reinstate  me !  No,  he 
fired  me ;  but  he  talked  to  me  as  if  he  were  my 
father!" 

In  practice  it  is  difficult  to  put  up  a  fair  deal 
unless  there  are  three  qualities,  and  these  are 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  171 

rarely  found  in  the  same  person.  The  qualities 
are  sympathy,  imagination,  and  above  all  a 
sense  of  justice.  Though  the  combination  is 
rare,  the  difficulty  is  not  insuperable,  for  many 
men  competent  to  be  leaders  through  other 
qualities  possess  one  or  the  other  of  the  three 
essentials;  and  just  as  an  illustrator,  a  story 
teller,  and  a  book  maker  combine  to  bring  out 
a  great  book,  or  even  as  two  authors  will  com- 
bine like  Erckmann-Chatrian,  one  of  whom 
supplied  the  Gothic  mysticism  the  other  of 
whom  supplied  the  Gallo-Latin  lucidity  and 
proportion  for  a  series  of  great  stories  of  the 
border  land  between  Teuton  and  Gaul,  so  ought 
it  to  be  possible  to  have  one  man,  inspired  with 
sympathy,  furnish  his  altruistic  dough ;  to  have 
another  man,  inspired  by  imagination,  mould 
it  and  bake  it  into  bread ;  to  have  a  third  man, 
inspired  by  justice,  carve  and  divide  that  bread 
so  that  each  receives  his  own  slice. 

At  Skagway  in  1897-98  were  many  packers 
carrying  the  outfits  of  the  northbound  crowd 
over  the  White  Pass.  For  ten  miles  out  of 
Skagway  the  road  was  easy,  and  then  for  thirty 
miles  over  the  pass  and  down  the  head  streams 
to  Lake  Bennett  it  was  desperately  hard.  After 
securing  a  contract  the  common  run  of  packers 


172          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

had  just  enough  imagination  to  move  an  outfit 
the  first  ten  easy  miles,  there  dropping  it  and 
returning  for  another  cheap  contract.  The 
prices  these  near-swindlers  received  were  low, 
since  they  bid  against  each  other  for  an  easy 
start,  accepting  from  $0.08  a  pound  down  to 
$0.04.  They  had  no  sympathy  with  the  man 
whose  goods  they  had  dumped  before  the  real 
work  was  begun;  they  had  still  less  sense  of 
fairness,  anxious  only  to  take  money  and  not  to 
perform  the  expected  work.  A  type  of  a  dif- 
ferent kind  was  George  Brooks  who  contracted 
to  deliver  outfits  at  Lake  Bennett,  40  miles 
away,  in  48  hours  or  no  pay.  George  Brooks 
charged  and  received  $0.20  a  pound.  He  must 
have  been  a  sympathetic  man,  for  everybody 
liked  him;  he  had  imagination,  for  he  knew 
that  what  the  most  eager  men  supremely  de- 
sired was  to  make  progress;  and,  charging  the 
highest  price  he  fulfilled  his  contracts.  In  spite 
of  $0.20  a  pound  George  Brooks  was  respected, 
honored,  and  even  loved.  In  spite  of  $0.05  a 
pound,  the  cringing  horde  of  near-packers  was 
despised  and  loathed. 

In  the  administration  of  Alaska  from  its  pur- 
chase down  to  the  present  time,  the  fair  deal 
has  been  conspicuously  absent,  individuals  have 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  173 

been  grasping,  corporations  intolerantly  in- 
triguing and  oppressive. 

Most  good  citizens  desire  to  see  smuggling 
stopped,  desire  to  see  natural  resources  con- 
served, desire  to  see  Alaska  well  administered ; 
but  the  great  blunders  of  an  ignorant  and  self- 
righteous  officialdom  at  Washington  and  else- 
where which  takes  tithes  of  mint,  anise  and 
cummin  and  omits  the  weightier  matters  of  the 
law,  judgment,  mercy  and  faith — which  strains, 
at  a  gnat  and  swallows  a  camel — make  many  a 
man  regret  that  the  opportunity  of  1776  cannot 
recur.  From  the  government  down,  through 
many  of  the  great  corporations  and  labor  or- 
ganizations, there  has  been  conspicuous  absence 
of  the  fair  deal. 

The  successful  gambler,  the  successful  prosti- 
tute (history  rings  with  the  names  and  fames 
of  both)  succeed  because  they  overbalance  the 
hideousness  of  their  callings  with  their  appeals 
to  the  imagination,  to  the  sympathies,  to  the 
sense  of  fairness.  Let  us  therefore  approach 
the  principle  of  the  fair  deal  with  our  imagina- 
tion, our  sympathies,  our  sense  of  fairness  alert., 

The  great  bulk  of  the  population  of  the 
United  States,  both  relatively  and  numerically,, 
a  hundred  years  hence  will  be  descended  from 


174          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

those  who  are  the  wage-earners  today.  Not 
dreadnaughts  and  fortified  canals,  but  what 
our  industrial  officers  make  now  of  the  working 
army,  will  make  our  future  nation.  The  wage 
earners  are  our  people  and  our  nation;  if  not 
its  backbone  and  skeleton,  if  not  its  brain, 
nevertheless  its  living  flesh  and  blood.  More- 
over, the  burden  on  them  is  both  exalted  and 
heavy.  It  is  the  men  closest  to  their  bread  and 
butter  who  generally  have  correct  instincts  as 
to  evils  even  if  they  often  flounder  as  to  reme- 
dies. It  is  the  flesh  that  quivers  with  physical 
pain,  not  the  brain  nor  the  skeleton.  It  is  on 
these  workers  that  the  duty  devolves  of  bring- 
ing up  respectable  families  on  a  small  and  pre- 
carious income.  There  is  not  room  for  all  at 
the  top,  even  if  all  were  competent  to  climb, 
and  one  of  the  great  problems  is  to  make  today 
bearable  without  taking  away  the  hope  of  a 
better  tomorrow. 

Belief  in  eugenics  is  gradually  extending. 
Great  improvements  in  offspring  having  been 
obtained  in  a  few  generations,  by  carefully 
selecting  and  mating  domestic  animals  and 
birds,  it  is  contended  that  if  the  same  restric- 
tions were  applied  to  human  beings  most  of 
the  evils  to  which  humanity  is  heir  could  be 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  175 

expeditiously  eliminated.  There  is,  perhaps, 
much  truth  but  also  a  triple  fallacy  in  this 
theory.  The  sheep,  the  oldest  of  domesticated 
animals,  has  lost  the  power  of  self-preservation, 
and  if  man's  protecting  oversight  is  withdrawn 
the  flock  perishes.  It  is  only  on  certain  islands 
where  there  are  no  beasts  or  birds  of  prey,  no 
poisonous  weeds,  an  even  and  mild  climate  the 
year  around,  that  sheep  can  survive  unattended, 
until  they  destroy  the  grass  blades  and  roots. 

It  has  been  proven  again  and  again  that 
thousand-year-old  tendencies  are  not  eradicated 
by  a  few  generations  of  selection.  In  Darwin's 
experiment  all  widely  divergent  breeds  of  do- 
mestic pigeons  reverted  very  soon  to  the  wild 
blue-rocks  from  which  they  had  originally  been 
derived  and  been  differentiated.  Are  we  wise 
enough  today  to  agree,  much  less  really  to 
know,  what  human  traits  ought  to  be  perpetu- 
ated ?  The  Latin  often  gives  to  certain  instincts 
a  charming  bias,  the  Gothic  gives  to  the  same 
instincts  a  repulsive  bias.  The  instinct  itself 
cannot  be  judged  by  the  coloring  given  it.  It 
certainly  would  have  been  a  pity  in  bygone 
aeons  to  have  perpetuated  the  good  qualities  of 
some  diplococciis  or  to  have  suppressed  as  un- 
promising the  idiosyncrasies  of  the  original  and 


176          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

very  objectionable  pithecus  erectus.  Therefore, 
firstly  because  we  do  not  know  and  may  select 
for  preservation  the  poorest  traits  and  for 
elimination  the  best;  secondly,  because  our  im- 
provements are  only  skin-deep  and  transitory 
at  best,  and  thirdly,  because  an  immense 
amount  of  devoted  effort  in  this  direction  will 
only  produce  infinitesimal  results,  we  cannot 
hope  for  much  from  eugenics. 

The  case  is  quite  different  with  the  practical 
remedy  of  immediate  common-sense  selection. 
A  man  of  sense  has  little  difficulty  in  selecting 
the  kind  of  horse  he  wants.  If  for  his  children, 
then  a  broad-browed,  gentle,  sensible  pony  able 
to  take  care  of  them;  if  for  his  own  driving, 
then  spirited,  high-strung,  fast,  but  not  vicious 
travelers;  if  for  the  plow,  medium  weight, 
plodding  animals  without  nerves;  if  for  the 
dray,  heavy  slow  animals. 

The  disposition  of  a  horse  or  dog  or  cat  can 
be  told  even  by  those  with  slight  experience  by 
merely  looking  at  them.  Avoid  in  the  horse  a 
narrow  forehead,  wide  rolling  eyes  showing  the 
whites,  ears  flattened  back,  bared  and  snapping 
teeth,  nervous  jerks. 

In  selecting  human  assistants  such  super- 
ficialities as  education,  as  physical  strength, 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  177 

even  antecedent  morality,  are  not  as  important 
as  the  inner  aptitudes,  proclivities,  character, 
which  after  all  determine  the  man  or  woman. 

My  own  children  showed  in  the  first  days  of 
their  lives  well-defined  traits  of  character  that 
have  never  changed,  whatever  the  differences 
of  residence,  climate,  education  or  health. 

The  competent  specialist  who  has  supple- 
mented natural  gifts  and  good  judgment  by 
analysis  and  synthesis  can  perceive  aptitudes 
and  proclivities  even  in  the  very  young,  much 
more  readily  in  those  semi-matured,  and  can 
with  almost  infallible  certainty  point  out  not 
only  what  work  can  be  undertaken  with  fair 
hope  of  success,  but  also  what  slight  modifica- 
tion or  addition  and  diminution  will  more  than 
double  personal  power.  Politeness,  for  in- 
stance, is  an  acquired  accomplishment  as  dis- 
tinguished from  kindliness,  an  innate  trait,  but 
whole  nations  are  polite  and  others  boorish,  and 
many  an  excellent  man  has  made  himself  im- 
possible because  he  was  a  boor. 

The  Tartar  nomad  who  can  see  the  moons  of 
Jupiter  with  his  naked  eyes,  to  whom  the  sun, 
stars  and  moon  are  chronometer,  almanac  and 
compass,  may  think  the  earth  is  the  center  for 
the  solar  system,  but  he  is  more  of  an  astron- 


178  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

omer  than  the  student  who  can  calculate  the 
orbits  of  comets  but  cannot  recognize  the  Great 
Horned  Spoon  of  our  ancestors  nor  find  the 
North  Star. 

The  empiricist  in  outward  signs  of  human 
character  has,  like  the  Tartar,  splendid  powers 
of  observation,  excellent  judgment,  and  very 
valuable  knowledge,  but  may  lack  familiarity 
with  the  conclusions  of  science  based  on  very 
recent  investigations.  The  modern  brain  stu- 
dent may  be  deeply  versed  in  special  lines  yet 
lack  practical  familiarity  with  everyday  mani- 
festations. 

The  weakness  of  phrenologists,  of  cranio- 
gnomists,  of  palmists,  lies  not  in  the  fact  that 
intuitionists  and  students  are  not  able  with 
almost  unfailing  accuracy  to  read  aptitudes  and 
proclivities,  but  that  with  insufficient  experi- 
mental verification  they  have  evolved  untena- 
ble hypotheses.  The  theories  as  to  the  brain 
held  by  the  old  doctor  who  from  a  single  tooth 
could  give  age,  sex,  disposition,  and  color  of 
hair  of  the  person  to  whom  it  had  belonged,  who 
from  casual  inspection  of  a  letter  held  upside 
down  at  arm's  length  could  give  accurate  de- 
scription of  the  unknown  writer  as  well  as  of 
her  father,  may  have  been  crude,  but  he  was 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  179 

able  to  read  and  understand  what  is  hidden 
from  most  of  us.  The  weakness  of  the  scien- 
tific investigator  who  experimentally  explores 
each  part  of  the  nervous  system  is  that  he  fails 
to  interpret  the  external  signs.  He  is  like  the 
bacteriologist  who  knows  the  life  history  of 
comma  bacillus  but  cannot  read  the  evidences, 
of  tuberculosis  in  the  human  face. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  there  are 
specialists,  a  very  few,  who  are  supplementing 
intuition,  observation,  and  good  judgment  with 
physiological,  psychological  and  anthropologi- 
cal research  and  study  and  are  thus  able  to 
give  the  most  important  competent  counsel  that 
can  be  given  for  both  the  fair  deal  and  for 
mutual  success,  through  advising  both  employer 
and  applicant  in  advance  of  engagement 
whether  the  latter  is  or  can  possibly  be  fitted 
for  the  work  that  must  be  done.  In  the  past, 
employers  have  recklessly  engaged  anybody, 
however  unfit,  and  have  then  applied  the  rem- 
edy of  reduction  of  wages  or  of  discharge.  The 
victims  of  this  arbitrariness  both  in  employ- 
ment and  in  discharge  have  for  protection 
joined  unions,  and  influenced  the  unions  to  in- 
sist that  wages  per  hour,  not  performance, 
shall  be  the  unit,  to  insist  that  no  equitable 


180          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

relation  shall  be  established  between  work  and 
pay,  to  object  therefore  to  any  determination 
or  record  of  equivalency. 

The  horrible  injustice  lies  not  in  establishing 
equivalency  between  pay  and  performance, 
which  is  as  elemental  as  having  accurate  and 
certified  scales  in  measuring  the  weight  of 
what  is  sold  or  bought,  but  in  retaining  a  man, 
whether  by  employer  or  by  union,  in  a  position 
to  which  he  is  constitutionally  unadapted  and 
for  which  he  is  unfit. 

In  a  large  plant  there  were  thirty-six  type- 
writing girls.  One  who  had  had  three-years 
^experience  received  on  this  account  $12  a  week. 
Another  recently  appointed  received  only  $7 
a  week.  They  were  both  on  the  same  work. 
Investigation  showed  that  the  $12  girl  was  able 
to  direct  390  cards  a  day,  that  the  $7  girl  could, 
without  injury  and  with  leisure  for  rest,  direct 
1,800  cards.  The  $7  girl  had  keen  perceptives, 
but  no  reflectives.  She  could  by  a  single  glance 
see  and  remember  all  the  items  on  the  card  she 
was  copying.  The  $12  a  week  girl  had  weak 
perceptives  but  fine  reflectives.  She  had  to 
read  her  copy  word  by  word  and  item  by  item ; 
she  could,  however,  have  written  an  excellent 
original  letter  as  to  the  facts  on  each  card. 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  181 

Notwithstanding  her  protest  and  much  to  her 
immediate  regret,  she  was  taken  off  the  work 
for  which  she  was  not  fitted  but  to  which  she 
had  given  three  years  of  preparation,  and  she 
was  assigned  to  work  for  which  she  was  fitted. 
The  salary  of  the  girl  with  perceptives  and 
consequently  capable  of  easy  accomplishment 
was  increased.  The  employer  was  at  fault  in 
assigning  a  girl  to  work  for  which  she  had  no 
aptitude  and  which  she  never  could  do  well  and 
in  keeping  her  on  it  for  three  years.  The  raises 
in  ¥  salary,  instead  of  being  fair,  added  to  the 
injury  since  they  had  the  effect  of  confirming 
her  in  the  belief  that  she  was  working  along 
right  lines. 

Paying  the  competent  girl  with  perceptives 
$7  a  week  because  she  was  a  novice  was  also 
unfair.  The  contention  of  the  unions  that  the 
girl  with  perceptives  should  do  no  more  in  a 
day  than  the  misfit  senior,  is  equally  unjust  to 
both  and  damaging  to  civilization,  since  it  pre- 
vents the  misfit  from  taking  any  joy  in  her 
work  or  from  rising  to  a  higher  level,  since  it 
prevents  the  adapted  girl  from  earning  what 
she  deserves,  and  it  lessens  output  and  there- 
fore increases  costs  by  causing  wastes  of  time 
in  operators  as  well  as  in  equipment. 


182          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

In  metallurgy  the  separation  of  free-milling 
ores  from  those  that  must  be  cyanided  or 
smelted,  the  further  separation  of  ores  that 
have  to  be  roasted  from  those  that  can  be 
smelted  without  preliminary  roasting,  is  both 
common-sense  and  the  fair  deal  to  the  ores,  to 
the  treating  plant,  and  to  the  mine  owner.  It 
is  neither  injustice  nor  discrimination  most 
carefully  to  analyze,  test,  and  sort  those  to 
whom  must  be  entrusted  the  task  of  carrying 
on  work  of  any  kind. 

In  industrial  plants  on  exactly  the  same 
work  schedules,  under  the  same  foremen,  under 
the  same  conditions  and  on  similar  machines, 
as  to  the  same  standards  workers'  efficiencies 
vary  from  8  per  cent  up  to  140  per  cent.  The 
8  per  cent  men  were  overpaid  for  what  they 
did,  the  140  per  cent  men  were  underpaid ;  it 
would  have  been  possible  to  fill  the  shop  with 
men  of  the  140  per  cent  class  and  to  have  paid 
them  40  per  cent  more  than  standard  earnings. 
No  other  direct  act  would  have  so  added  to  con- 
tentment, happiness,  freedom  from  trouble  and 
cost  reduction.  The  result  could  have  been 
secured  by  the  slow,  painful,  and  expensive 
process  of  gradual  elimination  and  selection,  or 
it  could  have  been  in  large  part  immediately, 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  183 

easily  and  cheaply  secured  through  the  employ- 
ment of  a  competent  specialist  to  advise  as  to 
aptitudes  and  character,  with  other  examina- 
tions as  to  experience,  skill,  and  disposition. 

There  are,  of  course,  other  phases  of  the  fair 
deal. 

Not  only  ought  a  boy  apprenticed  to  a  trade 
to  feel  confident  that  he  has  not  been  allowed 
to  enter  a  race  in  which  even  before  he  started 
he  was  hopelessly  outclassed,  but  he  ought  to 
see  before  him  a  reasonable  certainty  of  tenure 
of  position,  of  definite  and  increasing  wages 
per  hour  until  he  has  reached  a  maximum  for 
his  trade  and  locality;  he  ought  to  be  assured 
of  decent  helpful  companions;  he  ought  to  be 
certain  that  all  those  things  essential  to  his 
health  and  safety  which  he  cannot  do  himself 
are  being  done  for  him.  As  to  the  man,  the 
worker,  without  whom  industry  would  collapse, 
all  conditions  ought  to  be  standardized.  Drink- 
ing water  ought  to  be  germ-free,  life-destroying 
dust  should  be  sucked  away,  safeguards  should 
surround  moving  machinery,  work  illumination 
should  be  adequate,  not  ruinous  to  eyesight. 
Working  hours  should  be  reasonable  and  with- 
out overtime  except  in  great  emergencies, 
means  should  be  provided  for  ascertaining 


184          THE  PRINCIPLES  OP  EFFICIENCY 

directly  his  needs,  his  wishes,  of  listening  to 
his  recommendations. 

These  general  welfare  considerations  have 
their  effect  on  the  contentment  of  the  worker 
and  not  one  of  them  is  recommended  from  any 
patronizing  or  altruistic  motive.  A  locomotive 
or  other  machine  is  cleaned,  housed,  kept  in 
repair,  given  good  fuel  and  good  water  because 
its  efficiency  is  thus  increased;  and  in  the  in- 
terests of  plant  efficiency  men  should  be  treated 
at  least  as  well  as  we  treat  machines.  It  is  for 
mutual,  not  one-sided,  benefit  that  the  workers' 
counsel  is  considered. 

For  many  years  I  was  one  of  the  army  of 
workers  for  a  great  and  progressive  western 
railroad,  the  "Q"  as  we  fondly  called  it.  I  was 
free  to  go  at  any  time  to  the  general  manager 
and  tell  him  what  I  thought  of  things,  of  the 
grade  crossing  here,  of  the  freight  rate  that 
was  driving  farmers  to  haul  their  wheat  in 
wagons  instead  of  shipping  it,  of  the  frontier 
region  that  needed  advances  of  seed  if  crops 
were  to  be  raised  the  next  season.  I  was  one 
of  many  paths  of  communication  between  this 
great  manager  and  the  people  who  at  once 
made  his  road  and  were  dependent  upon  it.  I 
then  came  east  and  lived  on  the  greatest  of 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  185 

eastern  railroads.  I  tilted  one  dark  night 
against  the  point  of  one  of  its  crossing  barriers. 
The  hurt,  severe  as  it  was,  enraged  me  less 
than  the  knowledge  that  I  might  as  well  try 
to  change  the  position  of  the  fixed  stars  as 
unofficially  to  induce  a  change  in  a  crossing 
barrier. 

Today  when  at  one  of  the  great  railroad 
terminals  in  New  York  I  walk  carrying  a  heavy 
grip,  600  measured  yards  from  front  of  station 
to  car  in  which  I  am  to  ride;  when  I  have  to 
employ  two  porters,  one  a  street  rover  to  carry 
the  grip  300  yards  to  the  gate,  the  other  a  red- 
capped  part  of  the  organization  to  carry  it  the? 
other  300  yards;  when  I  am  charged  extra  on 
every  ticket  on  account  of  the  privilege  of  using 
this  palatial  terminal — it  is  not  these  hardships 
and  grievances  that  exasperate  me,  but  the 
knowledge  that  countless  millions  of  other  trav- 
elers through  all  the  years  to  come  will  have  to 
submit  unheeded  to  the  same  impositions  which 
spring  from  lack  of  imagination,  lack  of  sym- 
pathy, lack  of  sense  of  justice;  and  this  insig- 
nificant matter  becomes  in  the  multitude  the 
inspiration  for  an  anti-railroad  crusade  for 
which  the  railroad  officials  are  alone  to  blame — 
an  anti-railroad  crusade  as  to  other  matters, 


186  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

which  would  never  have  arisen  if  we  could 
trust  instead  of  fear,  a  hostility  often  as  un- 
reasoning as  the  little  mistakes  and  injustices 
are  senseless  which  stimulated  it. 

A  great  railroad  superintendent  of  motive 
power  now  at  the  manufacturing  head  of  one 
of  the  largest  corporations  told  me  that  no  un- 
reasonable demand  had  ever  been  made  on  him 
by  a  labor  organization  that  he  could  not  trace 
it  back  to  some  act  of  petty  injustice  by  a  fore- 
man of  poor  judgment. 

A  French  Canadian  worker  at  Montreal  in 
a  shop  of  mammoth  proportions,  fitted  with 
latest  machines,  remarked  with  good-natured 
sarcasm :  "It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  dis- 
tinguished management  has  not  considered  it 
among  its  obligations  to  furnish  such  facilities 
as  would  make  ordinary  decency  possible 
among  its  employees."  Workers  do  consider 
and  reciprocate  as  to  high  or  low  treatment, 
but  it  is  not  such  questions  as  warm  shops, 
clean  towels,  filtered  water  that  most  deeply 
and  directly  concern  the  man.  He  is  willing  to 
work  in  dripping  and  dangerous  mines,  to  work 
in  stifling  sweat  shops,  to  take  his  life  in  his 
hands  every  day  provided  the  wages  are  tempt- 
ing. It  is  about  wages,  directly  or  indirectly. 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  187 

that  most  serious  disputes  arise.  When  the 
French  Canadians  struck  in  this  Montreal  shop, 
it  was  not  for  facilities  that  would  promote 
decency;  it  was  for  more  wages,  more  pay. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  wages  loom  up  as 
the  most  important  question  in  industrial  life 
today,  although  aptitude,  therefore  pleasure  or 
success  in  the  work  undertaken,  is  more  funda- 
mental to  individual,  corporate,  and  national 
welfare.  The  individual  is  born  with  the  in- 
stinct of  self-preservation,  of  race-preserva- 
tion, of  acquisition  and  hoarding,  the  latter 
probably  merely  a  specialized  development  of 
the  squirrel's  nut  hoard,  the  wolf's  buried 
meat.  We  have  interposed  the  device  of  wages 
between  basic  need  and  its  satisfaction.  Wages 
therefore  acquire  the  importance  of  both,  and 
wages  are  also  the  cushion  between  anarchy 
and  civilization.  Men  and  women  twenty-four 
hours  without  food  become  wild  beasts;  the 
human  baby  becomes  fretful  and  then  an  an- 
archist if  there  is  ten  minutes'  delay,  instinc- 
tively knowing  that  nature  gave  it  a  mother 
able  instantly  to  satisfy  its  craving.  We  have 
societies  for  the  suppression  of  our  natural 
instincts,  societies  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty, 
for  the  preservation  of  birds,  for  safety  appli- 


i 


188  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

ances,  for  art  collections  and  for  libraries;  we 
have  in  our  legislatures  endless  debates  over 
insignificant  matters;  but  where  is  there  any 
rational  study  of  wages,  much  less  any  society 
to  enforce  fair  wages  or  any  legislation  in  favor 
of  fair  wages  ?  Labor  unions  use  the  big  stick 
to  force  wages  up,  employers  make  secret  com- 
binations to  keep  wages  down,  as  if  a  clock, 
either  too  fast  or  too  slow,  were  not  equally 
unreliable. 

No  other  subject  is  so  disturbing  as  wages, 
or  requires  so  much  of  the  "f air  deahjf  If  plans 
for  wage  amelioration,  successfully  tried  on  a 
large  scale,  have  been  at  best  only  experimental, 
they  at  least  have  interest  as  showing  how  this 
delicate  subject  was  approached  with  the  fair 
deal  in  mind. 

The  worker  wants  as  high  pay  as  he  can 
enforce;  the  employer  wants  his  output  to  be 
as  cheap  as  that  of  his  competitors,  for  if  it  is 
not  he  will  be  driven  out  of  business.  The 
worker  cannot  be  expected  to  work  for  an  em- 
ployer for  less  pay  than  is  paid  under  similar 
conditions  for  the  same  class  of  work  by  an- 
other employer.  The  wage  payer  cannot  be 
asked  to  pay  higher  wages  than  the  current 
rate.  Because  this  question  is  a  dangerous 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  189 

explosive,  because  any  stray  spark,  concussion, 
or  blow  may  set  it  off,  it  should  be  as  far  as 
possible  standardized  and  nine-tenths  of  the 
opportunities  for  clash  be  eliminated. 

As  at  present  paid,  wages  come  neither  under 
status,  contract,  nor  individual  effort.  Like 
many  other  innovations,  wages  have  preserved 
some  of  the  worst  features  of  all  three  systems 
and  avoided  the  best. 

The  worker  is  in  status  when  he  comes, 
stays,  and  goes  under  the  orders  of  the  em- 
ployer. There  is,  however,  no  status  when  he 
is  laid  off  without  pay  or  his  hours  are  cut 
down.  He  contracts  his  time  for  a  fixed  sum 
per  hour,  but  he  does  not,  like  other  contrac- 
tors, agree  to  deliver  any  equivalent  in  output 
for  the  pay  received.  On  day  rate  and  even 
on  piece  rate  he  cannot  use  individual  effort  to 
increase  indefinitely  his  earnings.  He  is  partly 
a  partner  since  the  machines  belong  to  the 
employer. 

Piece  rates  have  offered  no  solution.  They 
were  tried  in  order  to  abolish  status  and  sub- 
stitute contract  and  individual  effort.  Status 
cannot  be  wholly  abolished.  A  shop  is  more 
highly  organized  than  a  flock  of  sparrows  or 
gulls.  There  must  be  regular  hours,  there  are 


190  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

so  many  dependent  sequences  that  individuals 
must  conform  to  the  general  plan.  A  piece  rate 
is,  however,  an  endeavor  to  establish  an  equiv- 
alent in  output  for  money  paid. 

If  a  man's  wage  rate  is  $0.30  an  hour,  if  it 
is  estimated  or  guessed  that  he  can  do  a  certain 
piece  of  work  in  an  hour,  a  piece  rate  of  $0.30 
is  established.  He  is  told  to  go  ahead  on  the 
supposition  that  he  will  earn  more  than  $0.30 
an  hour.  The  employer  would  be  very  careful 
how  he  attempted  to  reduce  the  $0.30  rate  per 
hour,  but  if  he  finds  that  the  worker  earns 
$0.50  an  hour  he  immediately  begins  to  scheme 
to  reduce  the  piece  rate. 

When  high-speed  steel  began  to  come  into 
use,  the  machine  shops  at  Roanoke  of  the  Nor- 
folk &  Western  were  on  piece  rates  under  an 
agreement.  Although  the  use  of  high-speed 
steel  on  modern  wheel  lathes  has  reduced  to 
one  hour  the  time  of  tire  turning  which  was 
18  hours  with  carbon  tools  on  an  old  lathe,  the 
machinists  refused  to  permit  readjustment  of 
the  rates. 

It  is  evident  that  piece  rates  installed  twenty 
years  ago  must  be  inequitable  today. 

On  the  one  hand,  wages  have  risen  with  the 
increased  cost  of  living.  On  the  other  hand, 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  191 

improved  facilities  have  greatly  increased  the 
ability  to  turn  out  work.  Piece  rates  must 
necessarily  be  readjusted  and  their  readjust- 
ment is  one  of  the  industrial  tugs  of  war. 

As  to  this  most  delicate  of  wage  questions, 
peace  and  harmony  have  followed  the  follow- 
ing fair-deal  provisions: 

1. — Decimal  wage  rates  per  hour  are  estab- 
lished. 

2. — These  decimal  wage  rates  run  as  local 
conditions  require,  from  $0.20  an  hour  down 
and  up  in  full  two-cent  intervals,  therefore 
$0.16,  $0.18,  $0.20,  $0.22,  $0.24,  $0.26,  etc., 
perhaps  down  to  $0.06  and  up  to  $0.60  or  more. 

3. — The  wage  rate  at  which  a  man  is  en- 
gaged or  retained  is  subject  to  negotiation  and 
agreement  between  him  and  the  employer. 

4. — Men  shall  not  be  required  to  work  over 
ten  hours  a  day  without  a  bonus. 

5. — Normal  hours  shall  be  nine  a  day. 

6. — A  time  equivalent  shall  be  determined 
for  every  operation. 

7. — No  worker  is  under  any  obligation  to  at- 
tain the  time  equivalent.  His  wages  do  not  de- 
pend on  it,  but  on  the  time  he  is  under  orders. 


192  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

8. — Time  equivalents  are  subject  to  revision 
either  up  or  down  as  conditions  change,  never 
because  of  high  individual  skill. 

9. — Revision  is  made  by  competent  disinter- 
ested specialists  and  both  parties  know  why, 
when,  where,  and  what  revisions  are  made. 

If  all  these  provisions  are  part  of  the  stand- 
ard practice  of  the  shop,  if  they  are  accepted 
when  a  man  contracts  his  time,  serious  dis- 
agreements can  arise  only  as  to  (3).  It  is  in- 
evitable that  wages  will  from  time  to  time  rise 
or  fall,  partly  because  of  varying  cost  of  living, 
partly  because  of  supply  and  demand.  In  cer- 
tain districts  in  Alaska,  owing  to  both  causes, 
wages  have  been  as  high  as  one  dollar  an  hour, 
and  when  the  Klondike  gold  rush  began,  nearly 
all  the  miners  at  the  great  Treadwell  Mines 
near  Juneau  took  French  leave.  They  made  no 
demand  for  higher  wages,  realizing  that  an  in- 
crease could  not  be  granted,  and  what  they 
wanted  was  not  an  increase  of  10  per  cent  on 
a  $0.30  rate,  but  a  chance  to  earn  $10  to  $15 
a  day. 

Standards  could,  to  a  large  extent,  automati- 
cally govern  promotion  from  one  class  to  an- 
other on  account  of  gain  in  experience,  in- 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  193 

creased  age,  or  meritorious  record.  A  time 
ought  to  come  when  a  wholesale  advance  or 
recession  in  basic  rate  could  be  referred  to 
arbitrators  or  advisory  commissions  so  as  to 
minimize  opportunity  for  disagreement. 

In  one  plant  the  following  plan  is  success- 
fully operated.  A  man  capable  of  realizing  100 
per  cent  efficiency  is  rated  at  $0.28  an  hour, 
and  if  he  attains  this  efficiency  he  is  given  in 
addition  20  per  cent  bonus.  If  he  can  only 
realize  60  per  cent  efficiency,  his  wage  rate 
falls  to  $0.20  and  there  is  no  bonus.  If  he  de- 
livers 80  per  cent  efficiency  the  hourly  rate 
rises  from  $0.20  or  it  drops  from  a  previous 
$0.28  to  $0.26  an  hour,  and  the  bonus  becomes 
3.25  per  unit. 

Competition  and  trade  conditions  do  not  per- 
mit a  rate  of  $0.28  for  an  efficiency  of  only  60 
per  cent,  but  owing  to  the  saving  in  overhead 
charges  costs  do  permit  an  increase  of  68  per 
cent  in  pay  for  an  increase  of  66  per  cent  in 
work.  On  the  other  hand,  workers  in  this  par- 
ticular trade  feel  entitled  to  a  basic  rate  of 
$0.28,  a  rate  that  ought  to  be  paid  if  the  work- 
ers are  as  competent  as  they  claim. 

The  other  eight  provisions  are  almost  self- 
evident.  Undecimal  rates,  as  19  4/9  cents  art 


194  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

hour,  are  an  abomination  and  without  perma- 
nent excuse.  At  one  great  establishment  where 
the  efficiency  of  the  men  in  many  instances  was 
below  50  per  cent,  where  it  averaged  no  higher 
than  60  per  cent,  where  an  increase  in  efficiency 
of  20  per  cent  was  attainable,  the  most  strenu- 
ous and  indignant  objections  were  made  to 
standardizing  this  rate  at  $0.20.  Rates  of 
$13.50  per  week  divided  by  56  hours  to  find  the 
hourly  rate  are  also  an  abomination.  The 
greater  accuracy  of  records  and  the  greater 
accuracy  of  supervision  far  more  than  offsets 
the  slight  cost  of  standardizing  upwards  irregu- 
lar rates,  even  in  an  old  shop. 

Since  the  United  States  adopted  a  decimal 
dollar,  I  believe  in  1804,  it  does  seem  ridiculous 
constantly  to  revert  to  quarters  and  eighths  of 
dollars,  or  to  advance  a  man  a  half-cent  per 
hour,  or,  what  is  worse,  give  him  an  increase 
of  $0.25  a  day  for  a  nine-hour  day.  Calculat- 
ing machines,  wage  tables,  are  only  half  as 
large  on  a  $0.02  interval  basis  as  on  a  $0.01  in- 
terval. If  a  boy  is  advanced  from  $0.10  an 
hour  to  $0.30  in  ten  years  he  can  just  as  well 
be  advanced  in  two-cent  steps  as  to  be  advanced 
in  one-cent  steps,  and  the  advances  can  be  so 
timed  as  not  to  decrease  his  aggregate  earnings. 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  195 

It  is  conceivable  that  a  man  working  8  hours 
can  do  a  full  rational  day's  work.  The  same 
work  could  be  done  with  less  wear  and  tear  in 
9  hours.  Would  I  prefer  to  walk  3  miles  an 
hour  for  9  hours,  or  to  walk  3.375  miles  an 
hour  for  8  hours?  I  think  I  might  prefer  to 
walk  2.7  miles  an  hour  for  10  hours.  A  normal 
work  day  of  9  hours  with  temporary  variations 
in  gangs  between  8  and  10  hours  has  been 
found  to  work  well.  If,  in  balance  with  the 
shop,  a  ten-man  gang  is  working  9  hours  a  day 
and  one  man  drops  out,  until  he  returns  or  can 
be  replaced  the  gang  must  either  work  harder, 
work  longer,  or  disturb  the  balance  of  de- 
pendent work.  Rather  than  drive  harder  it  is 
more  equitable  to  pay  for  the  extra  normal 
time  required. 

Longer  hours  than  10  are  wholly  deleterious 
to  both  worker  and  shop.  I  never  knew  any 
advantage  to  result  from  promiscuous  overtime. 
It  should  always  be  a  serious  emergency  re- 
source, and  the  bonus  should  be  very  high  to 
men,  the  loss  of  shop  efficiency  and  increased 
cost  be  brought  home  to  each  official. 

The  time  equivalent  for  every  operation  is 
the  key  that  eliminates  misunderstandings.  All 
the  great  exchange  business  of  the  world  is 


196  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

today  done  on  a  basis  of  equivalency.  A  bale 
of  cotton,  a  bushel  of  wheat,  is  standardized  at 
so  many  pounds  and  the  dollar  is  standardized 
at  so  many  grains. 

The  worker  is  selling  time,  just  as  a  coal-. 
mine  operator  sells  coal;  but  the  purchaser  is 
not  buying  time  nor  coal;  he  buys  output  and 
heat  units.  The  equivalency  between  operation 
and  time  (not  wages)  is  of  transcendent  im- 
portance, exactly  as  equivalency  between  heat 
unit  and  fuel  is  of  importance.  Happily  both 
can  be  scientifically  and  accurately  determined, 
and  even  if  we  never  realize  the  equivalent,  the 
starting  point  for  our  modern  engines  and 
their  improvement  over  their  prototypes  of 
fifty  years  ago  is  that  we  know  that  776  foot 
pounds  are  the  equivalent  of  an  increase  in 
temperature  of  one  degree  F.  of  one  pound  of 
water. 

No  maker  of  an  engine  is  under  obligation 
to  realize  this  equivalent.  Neither  is  any 
worker  under  any  obligation  to  attain  a  time 
equivalent.  His  wages  do  not  depend  on  it.  He 
Is  paid  just  the  same  whether  he  ever  realizes 
a  single  equivalent,  even  though  in  every  case 
the  equivalents  are  normally  attainable  under 
standardized  conditions  and  standardized  oper- 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  197 

ation.  One  hundred  yards  in  ten  seconds  is 
not  a  normal  equivalent;  four  miles  for  a  single 
hour,  twenty  miles  a  day  for  six  days  each 
week,  are  normal  equivalents. 

Owing  to  changed  conditions,  never  owing  to 
wages,  equivalents  to  remain  fair  equivalents 
must  be  revised.  When  a  miner  of  precious  ore 
wishes  to  sell,  when  a  smelter  wishes  to  buy, 
neither  takes  the  word  of  the  other.  Both 
employ  skilled  and  certified  assayers  who  assay 
from  the  same  sample  of  the  ore  and  determine 
its  value,  and  if  they  do  not  agree  other  assays 
are  made ;  on  these  scientific  assays  millions  of 
dollars  are  paid  out  with  never  a  question  or 
dispute.  If  accounts  between  two  mercantile 
firms  are  muddled,  a  certified  accountant  is 
called  in  who  unravels  the  truth  and  on  his 
statement  settlements  and  even  court  awards 
are  made.  Similar  revision  of  equivalents,  al- 
though no  wage  rates  are  involved,  should  be 
made  by  scientific  specialists,  employing  scien- 
tific methods,  revising  solely  in  the  interest  of 
accuracy  and  truth,  never  to  give  either  party 
an  unfair  advantage.  All  these  provisions  have 
been  applied,  and  applied  successfully,  on  a 
large  scale  if  not  completely  all  in  the  same 
plant.  They  have  worked  as  intended,  they 


198  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

have  eliminated  wage  disputes  and  wage  dis- 
agreements, since  the  inculcated  habit  of  fair- 
ness has  reacted  on  the  basic  wage  question 
and  the  employer  particularly  has  proved  will- 
ing without  demand  to  raise  the  basic  rate.  The 
vice-president  of  a  great  railroad  system  of 
10,000  miles  who  has  applied  many  of  these 
provisions  to  the  wage  question  states  as  one  of 
his  guiding  principles  that  if  other  roads  in  his 
territory  increase  rates  so  as  to  equal  his  rates, 
he  will  at  once  make  a  readjustment  upward  of 
the  basic  rates  in  order  to  maintain  a  differen- 
tial in  favor  of  his  employees. 

What  wages  buy  is  fully  as  important  as  the 
rate.  It  may  be  well-nigh  impossible  to  force 
wages  up  20  per  cent  but,  it  is  well  known  that 
a  French  family  can  live  in  plenty  on  what  an 
American  family  wastes.  I  know  a  man,  now 
a  millionaire,  who  at  the  age  of  thirty-five  was 
still  working  for  $40  a  month  as  a  beef  carrier 
in  Chicago.  He  saved  money  and  bought  a 
farm,  sold  the  farm  and  went  into  the  milling 
business.  I  know  another  man,  now  a  million- 
aire, who  started  as  a  carpenter,  built  brew- 
eries, saved  money  until  he  had  a  brewery  of  his 
own.  I  know  a  young  man  now  chief  assistant 
to  the  executive  of  a  great  plant.  On  a  salary 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  199 

of  $30  a  month  he  married  a  thrifty  Scotch 
lassie  and  the  dimes  they  saved  from  the  start 
seemed  as  large  as  cart  wheels. 

If  the  American  worker  would  put  efficiency 
into  his  family  expenditures  his  income  would 
go  50  per  cent  further.  It  is  unfortunate  that 
he  concentrates  his  attention  on  rate  of  wages 
instead  of  on  the  equivalent  he  is  giving  the 
employer.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  em- 
ployer shies  at  the  suggestion  of  a  10  per 
cent  advance  and  pays  scant  if  any  attention 
to  a  50  per  cent  inefficiency,  two-thirds  of  which 
is  his  own  fault.  The  combination  of  thrifty 
worker,  high  equivalent,  fair-minded  and  pro- 
gressive employer,  wages  far  above  the  aver- 
age, insures  lowest  costs,  just  as  certainly  as 
piano  wire  at  a  high  price  per  pound  will  make 
a  stronger,  longer,  bridge  than  cast  iron  at  one 
cent  a  pound. 

Like  the  other  efficiency  principles  the  fair 
deal  should  be  standardized;  it  should  be 
moulded  by  each  of  the  other  eleven;  it  should 
be  under  the  particular  care  of  a  very  com- 
petent staff  official,  aided  and  assisted  by  many 
specialists,  character  analysts,  hygienists, 
physiologists,  psychologists,  bacteriologists, 
safety-appliance  and  light  and  heat  engineers, 


200  THE    PRINCIPLES    OF    EFFICIENCY 

economists,  wage  specialists,  accountants  and 
lawyers — in  short,  by  all  the  available  and  ap- 
plicable knowledge  in  the  world.  Provided  for 
in  the  organization,  founded  on  ideals,  on  com- 
mon-sense; developed  by  competent  advisers, 
simplified  by  vigorous  exclusion  of  the  unfit,  the 
unfair,  it  should  be  carried  into  effect  through 
reliable,  immediate  and  adequate  records, 
through  standard  practice,  definite  instructions, 
through  schedules  and  through  all  the  other 
efficiency  principles. 

The  fair  deal  is  the  last  of  the  five  altruistic 
principles,  principles  so  fundamental  that  we 
find  them  applied  by  a  she-bear  to  the  bringing 
up  of  her  cubs;  principles  inculcated  by  Old 
and  New  Testament,  by  every  great  religion. 

The  object  of  collating  wise  practices  of  ad- 
ministration under  a  few  simple  heads  is  that 
each  may  regularly  survey  his  own  task  from 
the  point  of  view  of  each  one  of  the  principles, 
and  thus  not  only  prevent  the  backsliding  that 
ultimately  results  in  disaster,  but  make  for- 
ward progress  so  that  he  who  started  as  a 
disciple  soon  becomes  a  master  to  whom  we 
turn  for  competent  counsel. 

Other  five  principles,  (therefore  not  includ- 
ing standardized  operation  and  efficiency  re- 


THE  FAIR  DEAL  201 

ward,)  are  not  practiced  by  the  she-bear,  are 
very  inadequately  inculcated  by  the  great  re- 
ligious teachers. 

They  are  as  modern  as  the  gas  engine,  the 
dynamo,  the  steam  turbine ;  they  are  almost  as 
modern  as  the  flying  machine ;  they  are  evolved 
to  cover  modern  complex  conditions.  The  se- 
quence in  which  they  will  be  discussed  is  not 
essential.  Records  will  be  first  considered,  but 
records  can  be  neither  reliable,  immediate,  nor 
adequate  until  nearly  everything  else  has  been 
standardized.  The  subject  of  records  will 
therefore,  of  necessity,  be  treated  theoretically, 
showing  at  least  the  backbone  of  essential  rec- 
ords from  which  less  essential  records  spring 
like  ribs.  There  are  records  of  standard  condi- 
tion, of  standard  operation,  records  of  disci- 
pline and  records  of  the  fair  deal;  but  the 
essential  records  of  cost  and  efficiency  will  be 
developed  from  an  underlying,  universal  and 
exceedingly  simple  formula,  which  covers  oper- 
ating efficiencies  and  standard  operating  costs 
of  materials,  of  men,  and  of  installation. 


VIII 

THE  SIXTH  PRINCIPLE:  RELIABLE, 

IMMEDIATE,  ADEQUATE,  AND 

PERMANENT  RECORDS 


The  potter  sitting  at  his  work,  turns  the  wheel 
about  with  his  feet;  he  is  always  carefully  set  to  his 
work,  and  maketh  all  his  work  by  number.— Ecclesi- 
asticus,  38. 

Where  there  are  many  hands,  deliver  all  things  in 
number  and  weight;  and  put  all  in  writing  that  tnou 
givest  out  or  receivest  in. — Ecclesiasticus,  42. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  SIXTH  PRINCIPLE:  RELIABLE, 

IMMEDIATE,  ADEQUATE,  AND 

PERMANENT  RECORDS 

WHEN  a  child  touches  the  red-hot  end 
of  a  poker,  the  information,  advice, 
notice,  record  is  reliable  and  lasting, 
also  immediate  and  adequate.  The  scar  is  a 
perennial  reminder  of  the  mistake.  Many  of 
Nature's  warnings  are  reliable,  immediate,  and 
permanent;  they  reach  us  and  other  animals 
through  the  senses — we  hear,  we  see,  we  smell, 
we  taste,  above  all  principally,  we  feel.  There 
are  two  nerves  from  the  brain  to  the  eyes,  two 
to  the  ears,  two  to  the  nose,  two  to  the  palate ; 
there  are  several  hundred  between  body  surface 
and  brain.  Very  few  people  allow  themselves 
to  be  burned,  because  the  penalty  is  reliable, 
immediate,  and  adequate;  but  they  are  not  as 
shy  about  more  deadly  disease  germs  (probably 
a  thousand  people  die  of  tuberculosis  for  one 
205 


206  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

who  is  burned  to  death)  because  the  result  is 
not  reliable  nor  immediate. 

The  object  of  records  is  to  increase  the 
scope  and  number  of  warnings,  to  give  us  more 
information  than  is  usually  received  immedi- 
ately through  our  senses.  A  steam  boiler 
with  water  in  it,  a  fire  under  it,  and  all  outlets 
closed,  is  more  dangerous  than  a  hot  poker. 
There  is  very  little  to  indicate  the  imminence 
of  disaster.  It  is  too  hot  to  touch  with  the  hand, 
although  it  is  conceivable  that  a  spot  in  it 
might  be  so  insulated  as  to  permit  the  engineer 
to  tell  by  feeling  whether  it  was  becoming  too 
warm.  A  thermometer  would  give  a  better 
record;  but  usually  there  are  three  recording 
instruments,  each  reliable  and  immediate,  one 
of  them  in  addition  adequate.  The  engineer 
watches  his  pressure  gauge,  he  watches  his 
water-level  glass,  and  the  safety  valve  will  pop 
even  if  he  has  fallen  asleep.  It  is  because  of 
these  three  devices,  one  of  which  is  independent 
of  the  man,  that  there  are  so  few  boiler  explo- 
sions. All  around  us  are  many  natural  forms 
of  advice,  of  records — the  word  is  throughout 
used  in  its  largest  sense. 

The  object  of  records  is  to  annihilate  time. 
to  bring  back  the  past,  to  look  into  the  future, 


RECORDS  207 

to  annihilate  space,  to  condense  a  whole  rail- 
road system  into  a  single  line,  to  magnify  the 
thousandth  part  of  an  inch  to  foot-rule  meas- 
urement, to  gauge  the  velocity  of  a  distant  star 
by  the  shifting  of  the  lines  in  the  spectroscope, 
to  annihilate  temperature  by  enabling  us  to 
read  the  millionth  of  degree  or  the  10,000-de- 
gree  difference  between  moon  and  sun  heat. 

Animals  make  and  use  records,  reach  out  to 
each  other  through  time  and  space;  and  the 
naive  surprise  of  the  doe  when  the  stag  appears 
does  as  much  credit  to  her  modesty  as  the  trail 
of  musk  left  in  her  footsteps  along  many  miles 
and  for  many  days  does  credit  to  her  involun- 
tary common  sense.  Man  alone  reaches  out  to 
man  through  millenniums;  and  the  pictures 
carved  in  stone,  the  hieroglyphics  pressed  in 
brick  or  cut  in  granite,  tell  us  more  about  the 
intimate  lives  and  philosophies  of  the  Hittites, 
of  the  Egyptians,  than  we  know  of  our  own  im- 
mediate ancestors,  the  Germans  or  the  Gauls — 
than  we  know  of  our  immediate  neighbors,  the 
Indians.  Pictures  and  writing  were  a  great  in- 
vention ;  the  reducing  of  music  to  written  form 
so  it  could  be  reproduced  was  even  more  mar- 
velous, since  through  the  eye  we  recreate  for 
the  ears,  thus  bridging  the  gap  between  the 


208          THE    PRINCIPLES    OF    EFFICIENCY 

senses.  The  perpetuation  of  sound  through 
ages  in  the  phonograph  disk,  the  perpetuation 
of  movement  on  a  long  film,  these  are  part  of 
man's  triumph  through  records.  The  phono- 
graph disk  is,  next  to  the  brain,  the  most  mar- 
velous, if  not  the  most  useful,  record  man  pos- 
sesses, since  all  the  throbs,  moans,  triumphs, 
all  the  nuances  of  a  hundred  instruments  and 
of  a  hundred  voices,  pulsations  of  the  air,  are 
recorded  by  the  needle  point  in  a  microscopic 
line;  and  that  line,  that  perfect  record,  gives 
us  again  the  same  air  pulsations,  the  same 
great  instrumental  and  vocal  chorus. 

Records  are  anything  that  give  information. 
Men  have  always  felt  the  need  of  records,  but 
they  have  not  always  known  what  they  wanted 
nor  how  to  secure  them.  In  the  great  industrial 
plants  one  knows  not  whether  to  marvel  most 
at  the  absence  of  reliable,  immediate,  and  ac- 
curate records,  or  at  the  superabundance  of 
permanent  records,  collected  with  painstaking 
and  at  great  expense,  but  neither  reliable,  im- 
mediate, nor  adequate.  Even  if  the  latter  have 
all  these  qualities,  there  is  often  great  duplica- 
tion, and  as  a  consequence  we  find  an  immense 
amount  of  accumulation  of  very  little  value, 
which  has  cost  far  more  than  it  need.  An  ex- 
ample of  duplication  may  be  found  in  the  coal 


RECORDS  209 

records  for  locomotives.  Expenses  of  operating 
locomotives  are  generally  recorded  per  mile, 
but  suddenly  a  parallel  set  will  crop  up  showing 
miles  run  per  ton  of  coal.  It  has  not  been  un- 
usual in  a  great  corporation's  records  to  find 
a  great  variety  of  monthly  tabulations,  and 
when  inquiry  is  made  it  is  finally  unravelled 
that  twenty  years  before  some  president 
wanted  a  certain  set  of  records,  that  his  suc- 
cessor wanted  a  different  set,  which  were 
started  in  parallel,  that  a  third  and  fourth  in- 
cumbent added  their  requests,  but  the  old  tabu- 
lations continue  to  be  made  and  painstaking 
clerks  work  their  monotonous  lives  away  in 
neat  compilation  that  no  one  has  looked  at, 
much  less  used,  for  a  decade. 

When  the  tramp  piled  and  replied  the  same 
cord  of  wood  first  on  one  side  of  the  yard,  then 
on  the  other,  he  was  working  efficiently  but  to 
no  purpose ;  and  having  the  soul  of  an  artist  he 
finally  rebelled. 

A  clerical  force  may  be  hard  at  work,  but  it 
may  accomplish  very  little  and  in  the  larger 
acceptance  of  the  word  it  is  inefficient,  even  as 
a  hard-working  steam  engine  using  50  pounds 
of  steam  per  horse-power  hour  is  inefficient  in 
spite  of  its  diligent  consumption  of  coal. 

There  are  records  of  all  kinds,  many  of  them 


210  THE    PRINCIPLES    OF    EFFICIENCY 

essential  to  our  continued  existence.  There  are 
in  a  much  more  limited  way  records  of  cost; 
and  between  the  two  extremes  of  universal 
records  (as  the  swing  of  the  earth  in  its  sea- 
sons or  the  slow  aging  of  every  living  and  in- 
animate thing)  on  the  one  side,  and  cost  rec- 
ords on  the  other,  come  records  of  efficiency, 
and  these  are  what  we  particularly  need  in  the 
present  phase  of  industrial  life.  We  have  not 
yet  learned  to  use  to  any  great  extent  the  con- 
ception of  efficiency.  We  are  interested  in  what 
eggs  cost  per  dozen,  not  in  the  weight  of  each 
egg;  we  ask  the  price  of  coal  per  ton,  but 
rarely  know  whether  it  contains  10,000  or 
15,000  heat  units  per  pound;  we  violently  re- 
sist a  demand  for  a  10  per  cent  increase  in 
wages,  but  we  tolerate  a  50  per  cent  inefficiency 
in  the  worker.  Not  one  in  ten  thousand  knows 
even  approximately  the  cost  of  food.  Its  price 
is  known,  but  not  its  value,  and  if  a  curve  of 
food  values  per  pound  should  be  drawn,  and 
above  each  item  its  price,  the  line  would  look 
like  the  record  of  the  seismograph  during  an 
earthquake,  or  the  record  of  a  magnetic  needle 
during  an  eruption  on  the  sun. 

The  whole  United  States  was  frantic  in  1896 
over  the  money  question,  and  not  one  in  a 


RECORDS  211 

thousand  of  the  gold  advocates  knew  that 
owing  to  violent  fluctuations  in  supply  and  use 
gold  had  varied  in  value  more  than  any  other 
staple,  not  from  hour  to  hour,  as  gold  bonds 
and  gold  stocks  fluctuate  in  value  on  the  stock 
exchange,  but  from  decade  to  decade.  One  of 
the  tasks  of  modern  scientific  management,  of 
efficiency  and  standard-practice  engineering — 
two  names  for  the  same  ideals — is  to  convert 
efficiency  records  into  cost  records,  since  the 
language  of  costs  is  understood  by  all,  the  lan- 
guage of  efficiency  only  by  the  few.  It  is,  of 
course,  generally  true  that  costs  will  decline  as 
efficiency  increases,  but  this  is  not  always  so. 

A  jeweller  may  work  with  the  same  efficiency 
setting  on  one  day  a  $2,500  diamond  in  a  gold 
stickpin  and  the  next  day  setting  a  $0.25  bit  of 
glass  in  a  brass  pin.  Costs  have  varied,  but  not 
efficiency.  A  Japanese  miner  may  work  for  $0.20 
a  day  and  an  Alaskan  miner  for  $15.00  a  day. 
Each  may  work  with  equal  efficiency,  but  the 
cost  is  very  different.  On  the  other  hand,  a 
farmer,  from  the  same  field,  planted  to  the  same 
crop,  plowed  by  the  same  man,  team,  and  plow, 
raises  increasing  crops  of  the  same  grain ;  but 
wages,  land  values,  and  the  price  of  horse  feed 
might  also  increase  so  that  decreased  cost  will 


212 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 


not  always  directly  flow  from  increased  ef- 
ficiency. 

In  the  refinement  essential  for  the  control  of 
modern  operations,  it  becomes  increasingly 
necessary  to  state  efficiencies  even  if  we  talk 
costs. 

Efficiency  of  Labor  and  Cost  of  Locomotive  Repairs. 
1905          1906          1907         1903          1909 


r 

$2400 

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$1600 

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$1200 

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$1000 

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3 

Average  wgt.  of  locoi.  75.63      79.50       81.74       82.98 
Mileage  per  loco.  3160.     4900.       4250.       4641. 

failure 
Tonnage  hauled  per      685.       736.         765.         770. 

loco.  mi. 


796. 
The  Engineering  Magazine 


RECORD  OF  EFFICIENCY  AND  COSTS  IN  LOCOMOTIVE  REPAIRS 

As  a  contribution  to  the  solution  of  this  prob- 
lem a  universal  formula  of  cost  and  efficiency 
has  been  evolved  which  has  the  further  advan- 
tage of  showing  what  records  are  really  essen- 
tial and  necessary,  what  form  they  ought  to 
take  and  what  records  are  useless,  confusing, 
and  to  be  omitted.  All  the  necessary  reliable, 


RECORDS  213 

immediate,  adequate,  and  permanent  records 
can  be  obtained  and  maintained  for  less  ex- 
pense than  is  usually  incurred  for  misleading, 
delayed,  inefficient,  and  ephemeral  records. 

The  costs  of  modern  operations  consist  of 
three  elements.  For  instance,  in  a  recent  year 
it  may  have  cost  to  operate  all  the  railroads  of 
the  United  States  approximately: 

For  materials $  524,000,000 

For  personal  services 1,021,000,000 

For  interest,  depreciation,  and  other  cap- 
ital charges 1,210,000,000 


$2,755,000,000 

Omitting  millions,  we  can  set  up  the  formula : 

Total  cost  =  Material  -f-  Per.  service  +  Invest,  charges 

2,755       =         524      +        1,021        -f-         1,210 
C  (actual)  =M  (actual) -f  S  (actual)   +      1  (actual) 

Let  us  assume  that  extended  investigations 
show  very  inefficient  use  of  materials,  very  in- 
efficient use  of  personal  services  and  also  over- 
equipment, and  that  from  a  practical  point  of 
view  it  might  be  possible  to  accomplish  the 
same  general  result  with  $370  of  materials, 
$780  of  personal  service,  and  $600  of  invest- 
ment charges.*  The  formula  of  standard  cost 
then  becomes: 

*  These  figures  are  used  only  for  illustration,  not  as  the   expres- 
sion of  a  conviction. 


214  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

C          M          S          I 

(standard)  =  (standard)  -f-  (standard)  -f  (standard) 

$1,750  =   $370    -f   $780   +   $600 

The  efficiency  of  the  whole  operation  is  : 


=  cent.=Total  efficiency=E 

C  actual  2,755 

The  relation  of  standard  cost  to  actual  cost 
gives  the  efficiency.  This  can  be  applied  to  each 
sub-part  : 

Material  cost  standard  $370  _        Material 

Material  cost  actual  =    $524  =70-6/    '    efficiency 

Labor  cost  standard  $780  _7~  .&  _     Service 

Labor  cost  actual  ~~  $1,021  ~  efficiency 

Investment  cost  standard  _    $600   _^  ^  _Investment 
Investment  cost  actual       ~~  $1,210  "efficiency. 

Actual  costs  can  next  be  stated  in  terms  of 
standard  cost  and  of  efficiency:  — 

Total  standard  cost      $1,750 
Total  actual  cost=Totalefflc.ency          =^=$2,755 

Total       Standard  cost        Standard  cost      Standard  cost 

actual__      of  material  of  service         of  investment 

cost        Material  efficy.   '  Service  efficy     'Invest,  efficy. 


Total  actual  cost++  =$2,755 


RECORDS  215 

If  we  know  in  advance  the  standard  or  theo- 
retical costs,  if  we  know  the  current  efficiencies, 
we  can  predetermine  actual  costs.  What  we  all 
desire  is  to  make  the  industrial  machine  as 
efficient  as  possible,  to  bring  efficiencies  up  to 
100  per  cent,  and  when  we  do  this  actual  costs 
will  be  the  same  as  theoretical  costs.  We  must 
first  attack  the  problem  theoretically.  We  must 
have  standards  and  we  must  have  efficiencies. 
When  a  pump  or  steam  engine  is  tested,  by 
every  means  we  ascertain  ideals ;  we  then  com- 
pare actualities  with  the  ideals  and  we  ascer- 
tain efficiencies.  Similarly,  in  the  great  indus- 
trial problem  we  set  up  ideals,  we  measure 
against  them  actual  performance,  and  we  as- 
certain efficiencies,  and  as  for  pumps,  and  for 
steam  engines,  so  also  do  we  use  these  efficien- 
cies to  prophesy  future  costs. 

When  actual  and  ideal  performances  are  both 
recorded  the  relation  in  one  month  will  gener- 
ally serve  to  predetermine  efficiencies  in  the 
next  month,  the  relation  of  one  year  to  prede- 
termine efficiencies  in* the  next  year. 

The  elementary  formula  is,  however,  wholly 
inadequate  for  a  real  determination  of  efficien- 
cies and  has  in  fact  led  to  most  serious  miscon- 
ceptions and  consequent  mistakes. 


216  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  folly 
of  the  man  who  buys  coal  by  the  ton  without 
knowing  whether  it  contains  10,000  or  15,000 
heat  units  per  pound,  who  scrutinizes  the  cost 
of  personal  service  without  knowing  its  qual- 
ity, invests  in  new  machinery  without  counting 
its  hourly  cost,  or  without  being  able  to  keep  it 
busy. 

The  cost  of  materials  depends  on  two  factors, 
the  quality  and  the  price. 

Material  cost=Quantity  of  units  at  price  per  unit. 
Mc=Qm  Pm 

What  is  wanted  is  that  QP  shall  be  a  mini- 
mum cost. 

The  usual  impulse  and  plan  is  to  attack  the 
price,  P.  This  does  not  work.  It  is  almost  im- 
possible to  lower  price,  yet  maintain  quality. 
There  is  a  constant  demand  for  better  quality 
and  the  tendency  of  prices  is  upwards.  In  the 
last  ten  years  railroad  presidents  would  have 
had  great  difficulty  in  buying  steel  rails  at 
less  than  $28  a  ton.  Q,  quality,  is  the  impor- 
tant factor.  There  is  almost  no  limit  to  the  re- 
ductions that  can  be  made  in  quantity.  Let  us 
take  coal  as  an  example.  The  ordinary  indus- 
trial-plant furnace,  boiler  and  engine,  use  five 
to  seven  pounds  of  coal  per  horse-power  hour. 


RECORDS  217 

By  buying  better  coal,  better  furnace,  better 
boiler,  better  engine  and  better  service,  coal 
consumption  can  be  reduced  to  two  pounds,  in 
some  instances  to  one. 

Efficiency  of  production  of  power  as  to  mate- 
rial is  raised  from  14  to  40  per  cent  up  to  100 
per  cent.  The  distribution  of  power  may,  how- 
ever, be  very  inefficient.  Air,  water,  and  steam 
pipes  may  leak,  there  may  be  seven  voltage 
drops  in  electric  transmission.  For  100  horse 
power  produced  in  power  house  only  80  may 
reach  the  places  of  use.  There  is  usually  great 
waste  in  the  use  of  power ;  lights  burn,  pumped 
water  is  wasted,  steam  blows  through  steam 
hammers,  compressed  air  is  used  to  ventilate 
rooms  or  blow  the  dust  out  of  clothes.  The  ef- 
ficiency of  use  is  rarely  above  70  per  cent.  As- 
suming the  efficiency  of  production  to  be  as 
high  as  70  per  cent,  that  of  transmission  as 
high  as  80  per  cent,  that  of  use  as  high  as  70 
per  cent,  we  have  an  end  maximum  efficiency 
of  39.2  per  cent.  If,  as  often  happens,  produc- 
tive efficiency  is  as  low  as  14  per  cent  (the  air- 
brake pump  uses  about  200  pounds  of  steam 
per  horse-power  hour),  if  the  efficiency  of 
transmission  is  as  low  as  60  per  cent  (I  have 
known  power  steam  pipes  to  be  laid  unlagged 


218  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

through  running  brooks),  if  the  efficiency  of 
use  is  30  per  cent  (cities  where  water  is  me- 
tered  use  only  one-third  as  much  as  those  where 
it  is  furnished  without  check  as  to  quantity), 
then  the  end  efficiency  of  14  per  cent  produc- 
tion, 60  per  cent  transmission  and  30  per  cent 
use  is  only  2.52  per  cent.  It  is  not  because  of 
price,  but  because  of  the  dependent  sequence 
of  inefficiencies  in  quantity  that  QP  usually 
admits  of  such  very  great  reduction. 

Materials  actuaI^ 


If  EE'E"  is  only  2.5,  Pst  could  be  increased 
40  times  without  adding  to  cost,  but  a  compara- 
tively small  increase  in  Pst  doubling  it  for  in- 
stance, may  be  the  easiest,  quickest  and  most 
economical  way  of  increasing  EE'E"mqto  10 
per  cent,  40  per  cent,  or  even  90  or  100  per 
cent,  as  the  case  may  be. 

Therefore,  in  the  last  generation  railroad 
executives  were  willing  to  pay  more  for  steel 
rails  than  for  iron  rails,  fuel  consumers  are 
willing  to  pay  more  per  ton  for  oil  than  for 
coal,  bridge  builders  prefer  expensive  wire 
rope  to  cheap  cast-iron,  for  in  each  case  as 
quality  goes  up,  quantity  goes  down  much  more 
rapidly.  What  is  true  of  materials  is  equally 


RECORDS  219 

true  of  personal  service.  ;Labor,  like  material, 
consists  of  both  quantity  and  quality.  The 
quantity  of  labor  is  measured  by  time,  its  qual- 
ity by  what  it  accomplishes.  The  formula  for 
personal  service  becomes. 

S=time  in  hours  multiplied  by  wages  per  hour 
S=TW 

When  TW  seems  too  high  there  is  generally 
an  insane  desire  on  the  part  of  those  in  control 
to  reduce  W.  This  is  naturally  resisted  most 
strenuously  by  the  wage  earner.  As  in  mate- 
rials, it  is  not  the  price  of  the  unit  per  hour 
that  counts,  but  the  quantity  used.  Also  as  in 
materials,  there  are  inefficiencies  of  initial 
quantity,  inefficiencies  of  distribution,  and  in- 
efficiencies of  use.  Let  us  assume  schedules  of 
different  rates  of  pay  for  different  classes  of 
workers.  I  have  known  industrial  plants  to  en- 
gage 600  men  when  300  would  have  been  suffi- 
cient ;  I  have  known  12  men  to  be  assigned  to  a 
job  that  2  men  could  have  done.  There  is  in- 
efficiency of  initial  quantity  of  50  per  cent  to 
17  per  cent. 

I  have  known  men  that  ought  to  have  been 
earning  $6  a  day,  in  reality  earning  only  $3 
because  they  were  in  the  wrong  place,  paid  $3 
for  work  that  a  $1  a  day  boy  could  have  per- 


220          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

formed  better;  I  have  known  a  $75  a  day  ex- 
pert to  be  kept  busy  on  clerical  work  that  could 
have  been  done  better  by  an  $18  a  week  clerk. 
These  are  examples  of  inefficiency  of  distribu- 
tion, varying  from  17  per  cent  down  to  4  per 
cent. 

The  inefficiencies  of  use  are  so  tremendous 
that  their  cause  has  to  be  explained.  Up  to 
about  a  hundred  years  ago,  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  windmills,  a  few  sailing  ships,  and  a 
few  cumbersome  water  wheels,  all  the  work 
of  the  world  was  done  by  the  muscular  energy 
of  man  and  animal.  It  was  used  fairly  efficiently, 
often  strenuously.  I  have  been  fortunate  in 
seeing  and  experiencing  personally  much  of 
what  was  formerly  the  rule,  as  the  porterage 
of  freight  and  supplies  over  the  Chilcoot  pass 
on  men's  backs,  100  pounds  to  the  man,  and 
the  killing,  by  overwork,  of  3,750  horses  out 
of  3,780  in  the  awful  strenuousness,  but  la- 
mentable inefficiency,  of  the  White  Pass  pack 
trail  in  1898. 

The  discovery  that  we  could  use  coal,  oil,  gas, 
mountain  water-powers  as  sources  of  energy 
has  changed  all  civilization.  In  the  United 
States  alone  we  have  per  inhabitant  twenty 
times  as  much  energy  available  as  when  I  was 


RECORDS  221 

born.  The  man  whose  manual  labor  it  would 
take  for  over  500  years  to  spade  up  a  section 
of  unbroken  prairie  land,  is  quite  inclined  to 
think  that  he  is  using  his  time  very  efficiently 
if  with  team  and  plow  he  breaks  up  640  acres 
in  four  years,  when  in  reality  with  suitable 
equipment,  mechanical  tractors  and  gang 
plows,  it  could  be  done  in  36  hours. 

The  man  who  would  take  a  week  carving  by 
hand  a  small  frame,  might  pride  himself  on 
turning  out  one  frame  a  day  with  foot  power, 
when  in  reality  with  moulds  and  automatic  ma- 
chinery he  could  turn  out  one  frame  a  minute. 

If,  as  I  have  seen,  a  man  using  a  shaper  over- 
runs the  necessary  stroke  three-fold,  if  the 
machine's  speed  is  only  30  per  cent  of  what  it 
ought  to  be  with  modern  steels,  if  his  feed  is  a 
1/64  inch  instead  of  a  1/16,  if  he  takes  four 
cuts  instead  of  two,  then  his  end  efficiency  is 
only  1.25  per  cent.  Men  have  not  yet  realized 
that  the  ages  of  muscular  effort  are  passed, 
that  work  can  no  longer  be  measured  in  man- 
power or  foot-power,  that  we  no  longer  want 
the  man  who  can  spade  twice  as  much,  the  man 
of  burden  who  can  carry  twice  as  much,  the 
man  who  can  break  a  horseshoe  with  his  bare 
hands ;  but  we  want  the  man  on  the  bridge  of 


222  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

an  oil-fired  steamer,  we  want  the  crew  of  an 
oil-fired  locomotive,  engineer  on  one  side  with 
hand  on  power-moved  lever,  fireman  on  other 
side  with  finger  on  oil  valve ;  we  want  the  crew 
of  mechanical  tractors  and  gang  plows,  each 
man  directing  and  superintending  the  evolution 
of  as  much  uncarnate  energy  as  2,000  men  could 
have  evolved  using  man-incarnated  energy. 

Assuming  as  a  possibility  in  inefficiency  of 
labor  a  quantity  of  50  per  cent,  of  labor  dis- 
tribution of  17  per  cent,  of  labor  use  of  1.25 
per  cent,  we  have  an  end  efficiency  of  1/5  of  1 
per  cent.  I  have  seen  worse  happen  than  this, 
for  sometimes  the  worker  did  nothing  at  all, 
at  other  times  was  busy  on  wholly  unnecessary 
work.  As  a  general  average,  efficiency  of  sup- 
ply of  work  is  not  over  90  per  cent;  efficiency 
of  distribution,  if  fitness  for  the  work  is  in- 
cluded, not  over  60  per  cent,  and  efficiency  of 
use  not  over  70  per  cent,  giving  an  end  effi- 
ciency of  37.8  per  cent,  shading  off  from  this 
maximum  to  nothing. 

As  to  service,  therefore,  as  in  materials,  it 
is  quality  that  ought  to  be  improved  by  paying 
a  much  higher  price  per  unit.  It  is  not  more 
strenuousness  that  is  wanted;  it  is  more  effi- 
ciency with  less  effort.  As  T  goes  down,  W 


RECORDS  223 

must  go  up  both  relatively  and  directly.  The 
locomotive  engineer  is  paid  higher  wages  than 
the  Chinese  coolie,  and  as  part  of  his  daily  lif 
he  enjoys  luxuries  unknown  to  kings  a  genera 
tion  ago,  still  unknown  to  Chinamen.  The 
coolie  carries  150  pounds  20  miles  in  a  day ;  the 
American  locomotive  engineer  and  the  fire- 
man haul  6,000  tons  60  miles  a  day.  Piece 
rates  are  physiologically  and  equitably  vicious 
and  wrong.  They  put  a  premium  on  harmful 
strenuousness,  instead  of  standardizing  condi- 
tions and  operations  so  that  greater  output  will 
follow  less  effort,  but  higher  efficiency  per  unit 
of  time ;  they  are  based  on  the  assumption  that 
output  is  dependent  on  muscular  energy  as  it 
was  in  former  ages,  instead  of  being  dependent 
on  a  steadily  increasing  quantity  of  uncarnate 
energy,  combined  with  a  steadly  increasing 
quantity  of  incarnate  energy,  both  directed  by 
a  steadily  increasing  intelligence. 

T  cannot  indefinitely  decrease,  neither  can 
W  indefinitely  increase,  and  experimentally  we 
must  determine  what  combination  of  TW  re- 
sults in  minimum  cost. 

In  the  diagram  on  page  224,  the  vertical  lines 
A,  B,  C,  D,  E  are  records  of  different  men  work- 
ing on  similar  jobs  but  at  different  rates  of 


224 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 


TW  Should  be  a  Minimal 


Hours 


^47 


.00 

if 

.50 


± 


«    5 


A. 
TW. 
A 
B 
O 
D 


C. 


T. 
10.00 
0.85 
4.M 
8.80 


.30 
.32 


D. 

Total. 
3.00 
2.192 
1.743 
1.551 
1.80 
The  Engineering  MagazAme 

EFFICIENCY  DIAGRAM  SHOWING  RESULTS  AT  VARYING  COM- 
BINATIONS OF  TIME  USED  AND  WAGES  PER  HOUR 

speed.  A,  the  slowest  worker,  takes  10  hours 
to  accomplish  a  task.  His  speed  is  that  of  a 
lame  man  only  able  or  willing  to  walk  a  mile 
and  a  half  an  hour.  Nevertheless,  although 
he  may  be  wholly  unfitted  for  the  work  and  the 
work  not  suited  to  him,  he  has  to  live,  has  prob- 
ably a  family  to  support,  and  he  is  unwilling  to 
work  for  less  than  $0.30  an  hour,  and  if  he  is 
wise,  joins  a  union  which  will  enforce  this  mini- 
mum rate.  A's  standard  expenses  probably  eat 
up  90  per  cent  of  his  earnings,  or  $0.27  per 


RECORDS  225 

hour,  his  profit  above  expenses  being  $0.03  per 
hour.  B  is  a  faster  worker,  able  to  walk  2.2 
miles  an  hour.  He  is  also  given  $0.30  an  hour, 
but  in  view  of  his  greater  speed  an  extra  pay- 
ment of  6.6  per  cent  is  added,  making  his  hourly 
rate  $0.32.  His  living  expenses,  as  for  the 
other  man,  being  $0.27,  his  net  earnings  or 
profits  become  $0.05  per  hour  as  compared  to 
$0.03.  He  has  increased  his  profits  66.6  per 
cent.  The  man  C  is  one  who  can  and  does  walk 
at  the  rate  of  3.3  miles  an  hour,  a  mile  in  18 
minutes.  This  man  earns  $0.32  in  wages  and 
a  bonus  of  20  per  cent,  making  his  hourly  earn- 
ings $0.38.  His  net  profit  above  minimum  liv- 
ing cost  of  $0.27  is  $0.11  an  hour,  or  an  in- 
crease above  A  in  net  profits  of  267  per  cent. 
D  is  a  man  who  can  walk  4.5  miles  an  hour,  or 
a  mile  in  13.3  minutes.  This  is  fast  walking, 
but  not  as  fast  as  is  regularly  kept  up  hour 
after  hour  and  day  after  day  on  the  Yukon  if 
the  trail  is  good. 

D  earns  $0.15  an  hour  above  the  employer's 
basic  rate  of  $0.32,  his  profit  is  400  per  cent 
more  than  that  of  A.  This  man's  speed  is  the 
most  economical  both  for  the  employer  and  for 
himself.  A  speed  greater  than  4.5  miles  an 
hour  is  more  than  the  normal  man  ought  to 


226  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

keep  up.  E  is  an  abnormally  fast  traveler, 
running  at  the  rate  of  5  miles  an  hour,  the 
Yukon  average.  His  pay  rises  to  $0.60  an  hour, 
his  profit  to  $0.33  an  hour,  the  profit  alone 
being  more  than  the  wages  earned  by  A  or  B. 
His  profit  is  1,000  per  cent  greater  than  that 
of  A. 

E  is  a  strenuous  but  not  an  efficient  traveler. 
His  work  costs  more  than  that  of  either  D  or 
C,  and  he  will  break  down  if  he  long  continues 
the  pace.  If  greater  speed  is  wanted  the 
method  must  be  changed,  not  the  strain  in- 
creased. 

Actual  service  cost=  ^'t  E"t  B"VB""w 

W  must  increase  as  Et  increases,  W  must 
fall  as  Et  falls.  If  this  is  not  the  law,  then 
there  is  no  hope  ahead,  and  civilization,  discov- 
ery, and  appropriation  of  the  energies  in  the 
universe  are  disasters.  But  it  is  the  law.  Let 
us  illustrate  by  a  single  example.  Sixty  years 
ago  $5  of  free  gold  to  the  ton,  $100  of  combined 
gold  to  the  ton,  were  about  the  lowest  amounts 
that  it  was  profitable  to  work. 

The  average  rate  of  wages  for  white  men 
was  low.  The  time  efficiencies  of  gold  produc- 
tion have  been  steadily  improved,  gravels  are 


RECORDS  227 

now  profitably  washed  that  contain  as  little  as 
$0.05  to  the  ton,  ores  are  mined  and  smelted 
that  contain  as  little  as  $5  to  the  ton.  Gold 
production  has  increased  from  $13,500,000,  the 
average  before  1848,  to  $400,000,000  per  an- 
num. White  men's  wages  have  doubled  and 
250,000  men  are  now  employed  instead  of 
12,500  as  formerly.  Those  who  made  money 
from  owning  gold  mines  have  invested  it,  de- 
veloping other  industries,  creating  still  further 
demand  for  employment.  Let  us  assume  that 
the  gold  producers  of  the  world  should  unitedly 
demand  a  2-hour  day  at  the  same  wage  per 
hour,  instead  of  the  present  8-hour  day,  on  the 
supposition,  firstly,  that  they  would  thus  pro- 
vide work  for  four  times  as  many  men,  and 
that  a  larger  proportion  of  the  output  of  the 
mines  would  go  to  labor.  The  immediate  effect 
would  be  the  closing  down  of  nine-tenths  of  the 
gold  mines  of  the  world,  225,000  men  would  be 
thrown  out  of  employment,  other  industries 
would  be  curtailed,  still  further  increasing  the 
supply  of  labor.  The  2-hour  provision  might 
stand,  but  either  wages  would  drop  until  low 
enough  to  make  the  reopening  of  the  mines  a 
paying  proposition,  or  increased  efficiencies 
would  have  to  be  applied  to  mining  so  as  to 


228          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

increase  the  output  fourfold  per  man-hour  of 
work. 

More  than  ever  before  would  it  be  necessary 
to  make  motion  studies  and  time  determination 
and  to  set  up  standards  of  supply,  of  distribu- 
tion, of  use  as  to  every  item  of  work.  If  wages 
per  hour  are  arbitrarily  increased,  the  increase 
can  be  safely  provided  for  by  increased  effi- 
ciency, and  in  no  other  way.  If  efficiency  is 
arbitrarily  increased,  wages  will  inevitably  rise, 
or  effort  will  diminish. 

What  is  true  of  materials  and  personal  serv- 
ice is  equally  true  of  investment  charges.  In- 
vestment charges,  like  personal  service,  fall 
into  time  for  any  performance  and  the  cost  per 
hour. 


in  which  T  indicates  time  in  hours  and  R  cost 
per  hour  for  capital  charges. 

If  all  the  railroads  of  the  United  States  are 
worth  $14,000,000,000,  it  is  evident  that  the  an- 
nual capital  charge  for  interest,  depreciation, 
insurance  and  taxes  might  be  $1,000,000,000  — 
that  the  actual  capital  charge  per  hour  is 
$.114,155.  If,  therefore,  as  a  token  of  respect 
to  the  memory  of  a  dead  president,  all  railroads 


RECORDS  229 

should  stop  operations  for  10  minutes  at  the 
time  of  his  funeral,  the  cost  would  be  about 
$20,000  in  decreased  efficiency  of  R,  but  the  of- 
ficials would  hasten  to  make  it  up  by  increasing 
the  output  of  the  subsequent  hours,  thereby 
raising  the  efficiency  of  T. 

As  for  materials  and  for  service,  so  also  we 
must  determine  which  T'  and  R  in  combination 
result  in  the  least  cost. 

In  pay  for  services,  the  natural  law  is  that 
an  increase  ought  to  decrease  time  in  larger 
proportion,  but  in  equipment  it  is  very  common 
to  increase  R  unwisely  and  very  greatly  for  a 
less  decrease  in  T'.  The  same  law  prevails  for 
equipment  as  for  materials  and  labor.  Addi- 
tions to  equipment  should  decrease,  not  in- 
crease, costs. 

Muscular  energy,  whether  of  man  or  animal, 
is  available  only  a  few  hours  a  day,  8,  10,  12. 
Uncarnate  energy  is  available  24  hours  a  day. 
The  machinery  in  paper  mills,  in  glass  plants, 
works  24  hours  a  day ;  an  ocean  steamer  on  the 
Pacific  will  throb  steadily  for  twenty  days,  the 
big  generators  at  the  world  exposition  in  Chi- 
cago and  in  St.  Louis  ran  for  six  months  with- 
out a  stop,  big  pumping  machinery  at  mines 
will  work  even  longer  without  shutdown.  There 


230  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

is,  therefore,  double  and  treble  investment 
charge  in  working  equipment  only  10  or  8  hours 
a  day. 

This  was  bad  enough,  but  there  was  a 
boom  period  after  1897  that  owed  its  start  to 
the  Yukon  gold  discoveries,  to  a  European  crop 
failure  with  abundant  crops  here,  and  that  was 
further  stimulated  by  the  sudden  expenditure 
of  one  thousand  million  dollars  in  the  Spanish 
war.  America  suddenly  resolved  to  scrap  all 
its  old  equipment  and  modernize  from  top  to 
bottom.  Every  railroad  rebuilt  its  main  lines 
with  new  grades,  easier  curves,  heavier  rails 
and  ties,  rebuilt  its  bridges,  stations  and  ter- 
minals, rebuilt  or  replaced  its  locomotives  and 
cars,  built  new  shops  and  equipped  them  with 
new  tools.  Every  city  rebuilt  its  business 
blocks  and  its  aristocratic  residence  section, 
every  street-car  line  was  rebuilt  and  re- 
equipped.  Infected  by  the  general  contagion, 
every  industrial  plant  tried  to  increase  its  ca- 
pacity. Paper  mills  doubled  the  width  of  the 
paper  machines,  thus  doubling  their  capacity, 
iron  mills  became  tonnage-mad,  textile  mills 
increased  their  machines  beyond  the  world's 
output  of  textile  fibres. 

What  are  we  going  to  do  about  it?    There 


RECORDS  231 

are  three  correctives,  and  only  three.  Existing 
equipment  will  gradually  wear  out,  the  country 
will  gradually  grow,  but  during  the  period  of 
readjustment  those  plants  that  are  inefficient 
will  be  crowded  to  the  wall  and  prematurely 
die.  Not  only  are  American  plants  subject  to 
high  equipment  charges  because  running  so 
few  hours  a  day,  but  even  for  the  8  or  10  or  12 
or  24-hour  day,  they  are  over-equipped  and 
much  of  the  machinery  lies  inactive. 

We  have  again  and  again  found  that  ma- 
chines were  not  in  operation  over  half  the  time 
of  a  9-hour  day.  When  in  operation  they  were 
inefficient.  It  is  not  so  long  ago  that  a  loco- 
motive-tire lathe  would  be  run  18,  even  30 
hours,  to  turn  up  a  single  pair  of  tires,  work 
that  on  the  same  machine  ought  not  to  take 
over  3  hours. 

The  machine  end-efficiency  in  some  plants  is 
not  over  4  per  cent  of  the  guaranteed  capacity. 
Eight  hours  out  of  24  gives  a  work  time-effi- 
ciency of  33  per  cent,  not  running  half  the  time 
during  shop  hours  gives  a  shop  time-efficiency 
of  50  per  cent;  many  machines  exceed  the  re- 
quirements of  the  work  put  to  them,  as  when  a 
big  planer  is  used  instead  of  a  shaper,  this  form 
of  efficiency  dropping  often  to  70  per  cent;  and 


232  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

finally,  machines  are  often  run  so  slowly  as  to 
show  a  speed  efficiency  of  only  3.5  per  cent. 
When  we  reflect  that  there  are  other  dependent 
sequences  in  the  material  inter-relations,  in  the 
work,  and  in  the  machine  inter-relations,  that 
there  are  dependent  sequences  between  ma- 
terial and  labor  and  machine,  as  when  unneces- 
sarily hard  material  lengthens  the  time  of  both 
man  and  machine,  or  when  defective  machine 
spoils  material  and  wastes  workers'  time,  or 
when  unskilled  man  spoils  material  and  injures 
machine — the  marvel  is  not  that  industrial 
operations  are  so  inefficient,  but  that,  consider- 
ing the  dependent  sequences,  they  are  in  each 
term  of  the  sequence  so  high. 

Actual  investment  cost=         T'st          Rst 


E'r    B"r    E"'r    E""r 

It  is  a  law  that  it  usually  pays  to  increase 
quality  of  materials,  that  it  usually  pays  to  in- 
crease quality  of  labor,  that  it  usually  pays  to 
increase  quality  of  equipment,  provided  ma- 
terials are  efficiently  used,  labor  efficiently 
used,  equipment  efficiently  used.  Equipment 
has  hours  about  half  those  of  labor  when  it 
ought  to  work  as  long  as  materials,  be  con- 
stantly on  the  job. 


RECORDS  233 

This  relation  of  rate  per  hour  to  time  is  gen- 
erally lost  sight  of.  It  is  because  it  has  been 
lost  sight  of  that  over-equipment  is  the  rule  in 
America.  Materials,  service  and  equipment  are 
worked  up  to  the  general  cost  formula  : 

Total  cost=Materials-j-Service-|-Investment  charges. 
Total  cost=       QP    -J-TW+        T'R 

Usually  only  the  greatest  of  industrial  man- 
agers realize  that  Q  is  more  important  than  P  ; 
that  T  is  more  important  than  W,  that  R  is 
more  important  than  T',  and  that  minimum 
total  cost  is  realized  when  QP  is  minimum, 
TW  the  minimum,  and  T'R  the  minimum. 

For  all  the  operations  or  for  any  single  unit 


This  formula  shows  what  records  are  wanted, 
namely,  the  six  items  of  standard  cost  and  the 
six  or  more  items  of  corresponding  efficiencies. 
No  manager,  no  accountant,  knows  where  he 
stands  unless  his  records  show  him  as  to  every 
operation  : 

The  standard  quantity  of  material 

The  efficiencies  of  material  use 

The  standard  price  of  material  unit 

The  efficiency  of  price 


234          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

The  standard  quantity  of  time  units  required 
The  efficiencies  of  time 
The  standard  rate  of  wages  for  work  of  the 
character  done 

The  efficiency  of  wage  rate 
The  standard  quantity  of  time  for  equipment 
The  efficiencies  of  time  use  of  equipment 
The  standard  equipment  rate  per  hour 
The  efficiencies  of  equipment  use 
The  formula  is  equally  applicable  to  a  total- 
ized operation  costing  one  mill,  as  the  page  of 
a  periodical,  or  to  the  operation  of  all  the  rail- 
roads of  the  United  States  as  one  great  unit. 

Records  as  to  each  detail,  aggregated  into 
records  as  to  the  whole,  are  one  of  the  efficiency 
principles;  records  as  to  each  item  and  every 
item  today,  records  as  to  each  and  all  items 
throughout  a  long  period  of  time.  He  who  has 
records  of  quantity  and  price — efficiencies  of 
both,  of  every  unit  of  material  used,  whether 
ton  of  rails  or  pint  of  oil ;  who  has  records  as 
to  time  and  wage  rate  for  every  operation,  and 
the  efficiencies ;  who  has  records  as  to  time  and 
investment  charge  per  hour  for  every  operation 
— he  is  in  a  position  to  apply  the  other  practi- 
cal principles  and  thus  bring  actual  up  to  ideal. 
Records  of  this  kind  are  simpler,  cost  less  to 


RECORDS  235 

keep  up,  than  the  usual  industrial  and  cost 
records  of  great  companies. 

Cost  accounting  can  be  very  simply  and  easily 
developed  from  the  cost  formula.  The  elabora- 
tion would  carry  us  too  far  from  the  subject  of 
records,  reliable,  immediate,  adequate  and  per- 
manent. 

In  a  periodical  publication,  as  to  each  page 
there  is  material,  personal  service,  equipment 
charge;  and  if  the  weekly  edition  runs  to 
2,000,000  copies  of  80  pages  each,  a  saving  of 
the  one  one-hundred-thousandth  part  of  a  cent 
in  cost  per  page  means  $800  in  a  year,  enough 
to  leave  some  profit  after  paying  the  salary  of 
a  man  whose  sole  duty  might  be  to  prevent  this 
minute  waste. 

When  the  formula  is  applied  to  railroad  oper- 
ating cost  it  inevitably  shows  that  E  is  low. 
We  have  all  seen  locomotive  safety  valves  pop- 
ping and  black  smoke  issuing  from  stacks. 
There  is  waste  of  fuel,  but  fuel  is  the  largest 
single  material  item  in  railroad  operation, 
amounting  in  fact  to  one-third  of  all  material 
expense.  We  have  all  seen  railroad  day  labor- 
ers dawdling  over  their  work;  but  common 
labor,  notoriously  of  poor  efficiency,  is  the 
largest  service  item  in  railroad  operation,  being 


236  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

about  one-eighth  of  the  whole.  We  have  all  seen 
superfluous  equipment,  whole  roads  paralleled; 
and  even  if  there  were  not  an  item  of  duplica- 
tion, is  it  not  conceivable  that  with  a  complete 
understanding  of  the  problems  by  people,  by 
government  and  by  managers,  railroads  might 
secure  money  at  4  per  cent  instead  of  6  per 
cent,  thus  reducing  equipment  interest  charges 
$280,000,000*  a  year?  By  the  test  of  the  cost 
formula  we  can  at  least  analyze  every  item  of 
expense,  determine  standards  and  efficiencies, 
and  strive  for  waste  elimination.  The  cost 
formula  is  one  of  the  instruments  wherewith 
wastes  can  be  detected  and  measured ;  but  even 
as  Kepler  proved  by  measurement  that  all 
planets  moved  in  elliptical  orbits,  so  does  the 
proper  measurement  of  costs  show  where  the 
savings,  if  made,  must  necessarily  go. 

The  savage  destroys,  the  barbarian  squan- 
ders, but  the  civilized  man  conserves.  QP 
therefore  measures  civilization,  TW  measures 
civilization,  and  T'R  measures  civilization. 
There  is  scarcely  a  conceivable  limit  to 
quality,  but  quantity,  natural  resources,  are 
limited;  there  is  scarcely  a  conceivable  limit 


*  This   item  was   not  included   in    the   recent   estimate   of   a   pre- 
ventable railway  operating  loss  of  $1,000,000  a  day. 


RECORDS  237 

to  human  skill;  but  each  individual's  span  of 
time  is  inexorably  limited.  Friction  and  clum- 
siness, duplication  and  waste,  can  be  eliminated 
from  equipment;  but  each  machine's  life  is 
limited.  As  to  material,  shall  we  use  radium 
or  shall  we  use  sulphur;  as  to  equipment,  shall 
we  use  the  old  round  blunderbuss  bullet  or  shall 
we  use  the  slim  modern  pointed  bullet  which 
travels  twice  as  fast,  goes  four  times  as  far, 
and  weighs  half  as  much;  as  to  equipment,  shall 
we  use  subways  built  with  4  per  cent  money 
advanced  by  the  city,  or  shall  we  travel  on  slow 
surface  cars  drawn  by  horses  and  earning  10 
per  cent?  As  to  equipment,  shall  we  use  the 
king's  couriers  on  the  king's  highway  or  shall 
we  use  the  telephone  over  a  1,000-mile  gap? 
Shall  the  workers  idle  the  long  days  through 
and  be  content  with  yams  and  a  gee  string? 

Civilization  is  high  when  QP  is  low;  civil- 
ization is  high  in  which  T'R  is  low;  but 
reductions  in  QP,  reduction  in  TR  must  be 
balanced  by  increases  in  TW.  Records,  the 
instruments  by  which  these  relations  are  dis- 
covered and  determined,  are  not  dry  and  mo- 
notonous; they  are  an  inspiration  and  a  guide- 

This  is  the  final  problem : — 

Shall  ultimately  more  of  us  work  less  time 


238  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

each,  W  remaining  low,  or  shall  we  all  work  a 
reasonable  time  and  greatly  increase  W?  Hav- 
ing increased  our  command  over  materials,  over 
equipment,  what  shall  we  do  with  the  gain?  I 
once  heard  an  eloquent  labor-union  leader  ex- 
pound his  creed :  "Eight  hours  for  work,  eight 
hours  for  play ;  eight  hours  for  sleep,  and  eight 
dollars  a  day."  Eight  hours  for  sleep — yes; 
eight  hours  for  work — why  not  more  or  less  as 
we  find  pleasure  and  delight  or  aversion  and 
pain  in  it?  A  dollar  an  hour!  Why  not  what 
we  are  entitled  to  through  elimination  of  ma- 
terial and  equipment  wastes?  Eight  hours  for 
play?  There  are  moments  in  a  man's  existence 
that  count  more  than  monotonous  months — 
the  moment  when  Charles  the  Hammer  learned 
that  the  Saracens  were  in  rout;  the  moment 
when  Columbus  learned  that  land  was  lifting 
to  westward;  the  moment  when  Lister  con- 
ceived of  asepsis,  when  Pasteur  conceived  the 
germ  theory.  Many  of  the  minutes  of  the  eight 
hours  for  play  can  be  expanded  into  moments 
worth  while,  through  the  conquest  of  matter 
and  of  time. 

Oebraucht  der  Zeit,  sie  geht  so  schnell  von  hinnen. 
Boch  Ordnung  lehrt  Euch  Zeit  gewinnen! 

GOETHE. 


IX 

THE   SEVENTH  PRINCIPLE 
DESPATCHING 


Away  with  all  delay!     Postponement  always  harms 
when  all  is  prepared. — LUCAN. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    SEVENTH    PRINCIPLE: 
DESPATCHING 

THE  Eskimo  counts  days  by  sleeps,  counts 
months  by  moons,  and  counts  years  by 
long  snows.  He  despatches  himself  by 
the  seasons.  The  Egyptians  knew  that  days 
varied  in  length,  that  the  moon  was  no  de- 
spatcher  of  seasons,  and  that  the  sun  was  no 
despatcher  of  the  year,  so  they  fell  back  on 
Sothis,  the  dog-star,  and  based  their  chronology 
on  the  great  Sothis  period  of  1,461  years.  Our 
watches  and  chronometers  are  run  on  sidereal 
time. 

With  our  photography,  with  our  spectro- 
scopes, we  find  that  in  one  direction  the  stars 
are  widening  out,  that  in  the  opposite  direction 
they  are  drawing  together,  as  our  solar  system 
swings  through  space;  and  ultimately  we 
shall  fall  back  on  the  whole  universe  as  chief 
despatcher. 

241 


242  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

If  we  could  photograph  the  stars  at  intervals 
of  a  hundred  years  until  we  had  five-thousand 
pictures,  and  then  run  the  views  on  a  moving- 
picture  machine,  all  would  be  rapid  interlacing 
motion  where  now  there  seems  to  be  immutable 
rest. 

So  much  for  the  infinitely  large;  but  de- 
spatching is  just  as  much  in  evidence  in  the 
infinitely  little. 

In  three  weeks'  time,  a  hen's  egg,  if  kept 
warm,  will  change  from  an  albuminous  and 
fatty  mass  into  the  living  chick.  As  boys  in  an 
English  school  we  secured  cards  of  silkworm 
eggs,  hatched  them  by  the  heat  of  our  own 
bodies,  carefully  reared  the  worms,  watching 
the  alternate  periods  of  voracious  activity  and 
sloughing  numbness.  We  watched  them  spin 
their  cocoons,  within  which  they  changed  to 
chrysalids,  to  emerge  later  as  delicately  beauti- 
ful moths — unless  we  cut  short  their  despatch- 
ing and  despatched  them  our  way  with  boiling 
water.  All  growth  and  decay  are  manifesta- 
tions of  the  principle  of  despatching.  The 
emanations  of  radium,  that  marvelous  element, 
have  almost  revealed  to  us  the  ultimate  consti- 
tution of  matter,  and  we  now  know  that  every 
atom  is  in  a  ferment  of  activity,  as  orderly  as 


DESPATCHING  243 

and  perhaps  far  more  complicated  than  a  solar 
system. 

The  Egyptians  had  wrested  from  the  stars 
their  time  secrets  and  arranged  accordingly 
their  dynasties,  also  their  great  Sothis  month 
once  in  120  years,  a  leap-year  month ;  but  they 
did  not  know  that  ophthalmia  is  carried  by 
filthy  flies  and  that  it  grows  in  each  case  as 
regularly  as  solar  cycles.  So  from  the  prehis- 
toric paleolithic  age  to  the  last  decade,  Egyptian 
babies  have  gone  blind  with  preventable  blind- 
ness. 

It  is  apparently  easier  to  grasp  and  acquiesce 
in  the  large  than  in  the  small,  easier  to  rush  to 
certain  death  in  a  battle  than  to  endure  a  cinder 
in  the  eye,  but  he  that  ruleth  his  spirit  is  better 
than  he  that  taketh  a  city. 

At  every  hotel  there  are  racks  filled  with 
railroad  time-tables.  These  are  issued  by  the 
ton  every  month  and  show  to  the  minute  the 
exact  time  during  the  future  weeks  every  pas- 
senger train  in  the  United  States  is  scheduled 
to  reach  every  station.  These  are  the  popular, 
abridged  time-tables.  For  the  employees  there 
are  time-tables  much  more  carefully  compiled, 
covering  also  the  freight  trains  and  giving  all 
the  rules  of  operation. 


244          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

In  railroad  operation  marvelous  despatching 
has  been  attained,  more  accurate  than  the  sea- 
sons, more  reliable  than  the  tides,  almost  equal 
to  the  star  time  on  which  it  is  based.  Lines  of 
track  nearly  a  thousand  miles  long  stretch  be- 
tween New  York  and  Chicago.  Every  switch, 
every  grade,  every  curve,  is  known ;  the  line  is 
studded  with  signal  towers  and  punctuated  with 
stations.  In  the  round  house  is  a  locomotive 
with  boiler  capable  of  carrying  225-pounds 
steam  pressure,  which  through  the  cylinders 
and  pistons  pushes  on  the  wheels  with  rims 
polished  like  glass.  The  rims  transmit  400 
horse  power  through  a  quarter-inch  square  of 
contact  with  a  glass-smooth  rail.  With  one  load 
of  coal,  drinking  from  tanks  as  it  runs,  the 
locomotive  is  able  to  speed  140  miles  at  the  rate 
of  60  miles  an  hour.  The  seventy-two  to 
eighty-four  wheel  axles  under  the  train  must 
each  run  true  in  its  box,  everything  in  track 
and  equipment,  in  men,  and  above  all  in  spirit, 
must  be  in  perfect  order  all  the  time.  On  the 
basis  of  these  conditions  a  schedule  is  made 
out,  a  schedule  of  running  time,  with  due  al- 
lowance for  grades  and  curves  and  stations,  an 
18-hour  schedule  from  New  York  to  Chicago. 
The  train  is  then  despatched. 


DESPATCHING  245 

The  despatchers  issue  orders  to  the  conductor 
and  to  the  block-signal  men,  thus  controlling 
the  train  from  both  ends.  While  under  the 
orders  of  the  conductor,  while  physically  under 
the  control  of  the  engineer,  it  is  the  despatcher 
who  from  start  to  finish  holds  it  in  the  hollow 
of  his  hand.  This  is  the  highest  degree  of 
despatching  that  has  been  reached  in  America. 
It  is  perfect  in  its  way,  and  all  Americans  are 
justly  proud  of  it,  although  as  a  marvel  of 
human  skill  and  despatching  excellence  it  is  not 
to  be  compared  with  the  despatching  of  the 
Franco-German  war  by  von  Moltke,  when  over 
a  million  men  were  despatched,  and  empire- 
making  and  destroying  battles  were  fought  at 
a  predetermined  time  and  place,  with  prede- 
termined victory  for  the  great  despatcher,  pre- 
determined defeat  for  his  less  skilled  opponent. 
The  big  task  was  carried  through  because  of 
perfect  preparation.  The  German  army  had 
no  track,  no  perfect  locomotives,  no  built  and 
tested  signal  towers,  but  it  had  a  perfectly 
working  organization  that  had  not  omitted  to 
give  attention  to  every  little  detail. 

In  America  we  fail  in  details.  We  step  from 
the  18-hour  train  and  we  enter  a  railroad  shop. 
We  ask,  "Do  you  despatch  your  work  here?" — 


246          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

"No,  this  is  a  repair  shop.  We  rarely  do  the 
same  thing  twice.  Despatching  is  all  very  well 
for  a  daily  train  running  every  day  in  the  year, 
but  it  would  never  apply  in  a  repair  shop."  The 
official  in  charge  with  ill-disguised  skepticism 
enquires  whether  the  questioner  is  a  railroad 
man,  whether  he  understands  the  peculiarities 
of  railroad  operation.  We  say  nothing,  but  we 
wonder  whether  a  surgeon  without  railroad 
experience  could  take  out  a  railroad  man's 
appendix.  Has  the  official  fully  grasped  the 
fact  that  as  to  most  of  life  facts,  as  to  the 
fundamentals  of  conception,  gestation,  birth, 
nutrition,  growth,  development,  he  is  one  with 
his  cousins,  the  other  mammals ;  that  as  to  most 
of  the  balance  he  is  one  with  his  human  broth- 
ers, and  that  even  if  he  had  the  special  talent 
of  a  Paderewski,  he  could  not  play  without 
hands,  nor  compose  if  he  had  the  toothache,  nor 
appear  in  public  barefoot?  We  wonder  that  the 
official  does  not  see  that  the  laws  of  order,  of 
sequence,  of  rhythm,  of  balance,  and  several 
others  are  superior  to  all  minor  peculiarities. 
Once  when  I  was  suddenly  stricken  in  a  rail- 
road shop  and  was  taken,  distorted  with  pain, 
in  an  ambulance  in  my  grimy,  disheveled 
clothes  to  a  railroad  hospital,  they  thought  I 


DESPATCHING  247 

was  a  tramp  who  had  fallen  off  a  brake  beam, 
but  neither  I  nor  they  were  worried  about  my 
official  standing  as  they  tried  to  mitigate  the 
sufferings  of  a  sick  man. 

To  return,  not  to  this  railroad  shop,  but  to 
the  other  where  the  doubting  official  is  stand- 
ing, I  suddenly  see  a  man  shaping  a  small  piece 
of  steel  about  the  size  of  a  visiting  card.  I  do 
not  know  what  it  is  for,  but  in  thirty  seconds 
I  notice  that  the  moving  tool  is  cutting  air 
three  inches  and  cutting  metal  one  inch;  effi- 
ciency of  stroke  is  therefore  about  30  per  cent, 
with  due  allowance  for  clearance  at  each  end. 
I  ask  the  man  what  kind  of  tool  steel  he  is 
using,  and  he  answers  "blue  chip,"  but  this 
means  nothing  to  him,  as  instead  of  making 
blue  chips  his  metal  chips  are  dull  gray.  His 
cutting  speed  is  about  one-third  of  what  it 
ought  to  be,  therefore  efficiency  of  speed  is  33 
per  cent.  His  tool  is  diamond-pointed  and  his 
feed  is  1/64  inch.  He  should  have  used  a 
round-nosed  tool  and  the  feed  should  have  been 
1/16  inch,  so  that  the  efficiency  of  feed  is  25 
per  cent.  His  depth  of  cut  is  as  thin  as  he  can 
make  it,  so  he  takes*  three  so-called  roughing 
cuts  and  then  a  finishing  cut  when  one  deep 
roughing  cut  and  a  broad,  scraping,  finishing 


248          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

cut  would  have  answered.  His  efficiency  on 
depth  of  cut  is  not  over  50  per  cent.  The 
time  efficiency  of  the  whole  job  is  therefore 
30  X  33  X  25  X  50  =  1.25  per  cent—but  a 
little  over  one  per  cent.  These  are  the  visible 
inefficiencies.  I  surmise  a  number  of  others 
that  I  do  not  see.  I  suspect  that  perhaps  the 
piece,  was  not  needed  at  all,  that  some  worker 
or  foreman  is  doing  some  unauthorized  experi- 
mental work ;  I  suspect  that  the  piece  needs  no 
such  finish.  I  have  too  often  seen  infinitesimal 
cuts,  followed  by  file  and  emery  cloth,  put  on 
a  piece  that  is  then  flung  down  on  the  rough 
floor  and  badly  dented  with  no  apparent  inter- 
ference with  its  usefulness.  I  have  seen  a 
scraping  tool  put  on  locomotive  tires,  taking 
off  tissue-paper-thin  scrapings,  when  every- 
body who  thinks  a  minute  knows  that  car  axles 
(a  much  more  important  surface)  are  often 
given  a  rolling  finish,  and  that  locomotive  tires, 
however  rough,  would  roll  smooth  before  the 
engine  had  rolled  out  of  the  shop.  I  have  seen 
a  railroad  shop  man  put  hours  of  work  and  use 
$600  of  material  on  a  replacement  when  a  $27 
repair  would  have  abundantly  answered  the 
purpose,  a  man  not  heeding  the  Scripture  in- 
junction not  to  put  a  patch  of  new  cloth  on  an 


DESPATCHING  249 

old  garment  lest  the  garment  be  weaker  than 
before.    Why  continue  these  painful  examples? 

The  railroad  that  despatches  its  crack  trains 
with  99  per  cent  of  time  accuracy  has  either 
no  despatch  system  or  a  very  crude  one  for 
work,  either  big  or  small,  through  its  shops; 
therefore  in  some  cases  it  fails  to  realize  an 
efficiency  of  even  1  per  cent,  and  on  the  big 
average  of  all  shop  work  fails  to  realize  either 
a  time  or  cost  efficiency  of  more  than  40  per 
cent.  Our  universe  would  not  last  very  long 
if  only  the  stars  were  despatched.  It  is  the 
despatching  of  our  daily  meals,  the  despatching 
work  of  ferments,  of  bacteria,  of  protozoa,  of 
molecules  and  of  atoms,  that  counts. 

A  firm  in  Chicago  has  taken  a  million-dollar 
contract  to  bring  out  a  new  edition  of  a  great 
encyclopedia.  All  the  work  is  despatched. 
Conditions  were  standardized,  operations  were 
standardized,  each  volume,  each  page,  each 
column,  each  line,  each  letter  is  despatched, 
even  as  the  proper  lubrication  of  each  car  axle 
is  part  of  the  proper  despatching  of  the  18-hour 
train. 

Many  years  ago  on  the  Yukon  I  said  to  a 
river-steamer  owner:  "I  suppose  you  much 
prefer  passengers  to  freight.  If  you  run  on  a 


250          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

sand  bar,  the  passengers  can  get  off  and  help 
you  to  put  the  steamer  afloat."  He  told  me 
plainly,  forcibly  and  picturesquely  that  I  did 
not  know  what  I  was  talking  about.  If  a  pas- 
senger boat  stuck  on  a  bar,  the  passengers  did 
nothing  but  grumble  and  cause  trouble,  and  the 
only  way  they  lightened  the  load  was  by  eating 
more  of  the  food,  but  a  load  of  freight  would 
not  complain  if  it  not  only  ran  on  a  sand  bar 
but  in  addition  was  caught  in  the  ice  and  re- 
mained all  winter. 

Railroad  despatching  as  to  passenger  trains 
is  of  a  very  high  order  of  excellence;  as  to 
freight  forwarding  it  is  gradually  emerging 
from  the  dark  ages,  perishable  freight  going 
forwards  almost  with  passenger  regularity; 
wrecks,  slides,  snow  are  taken  care  of  with  a 
despatch  of  the  highest  order  of  excellence; 
railroads  are  even  built  on  schedule  time;  but 
considering  the  expenditures  that  are  not 
despatched  and  those  that  are  inefficiently 
despatched,  the  general  despatching  efficiency, 
even  of  railroads,  is  not  over  40  per  cent,  yet 
there  are  few  activities  that  do  as  well  as  rail- 
roads. The  reasons  the  despatching  efficiency 
is  so  low  are  many,  but  chief  among  them  are 
lack  of  proper  type  of  organization,  and  failure 


DESPATCHING  251 

to  apply  principles  as  distinguished  from 
empirical  makeshifts. 

Nevertheless,  there  are  very  few  other  activi- 
ties scheduled  as  far  in  advance  and  as  accu- 
rately as  train  despatching.  Newspaper  offices 
furnish  wonderful  examples  of  scheduled  work, 
so  also  do  theatres,  and  perhaps  the  most  won- 
derful of  all  are  the  weather  reports,  gathered 
over  an  area  of  four  million  square  miles,  com- 
piled, digested  and  distributed  within  a  few 
hours  of  receipt.  But  most  of  the  industrial 
plants  of  the  world  are  still  in  the  stage  of 
civilization  of  which  as  to  transportation  the 
old  freight  wagons  and  prairie  schooners 
across  the  plains  were  types.  They  started 
when  they  got  ready,  they  arrived  some  time, 
and  nobody  knew  where  they  were  nor  what 
route  they  were  taking  in  between. 

There  is  one  collection  of  industrial  shops  in 
the  United  States  in  which  schedules  and  de- 
spatching have  been  so  perfected  that  the  work 
is  planned  ahead  three  months  and  the  particu- 
lar job  that  each  man  is  to  do  at  4  o'clock  or 
any  other  hour  for  any  day  is  known.  Plan- 
ning long  in  advance  is  convenient,  but  is  not 
an  essential  part  of  scientific  despatching.  A 
barber  shop  is  scientifically  despatched  from 


252          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

minute  to  minute,  and  a  customer  entering  can 
figure  very  closely  on  the  time  that  he  will  be 
able  to  leave. 

Railroad  despatching  remains,  however,  the 
most  extended  and  striking  example  of  ad- 
vance planning  and  daily  realization.  It  seemed 
quite  obvious,  therefore,  to  extend  these  rail- 
road principles  of  despatching  to  the  operations 
in  a  railroad  shop.  Railroad  officials  fully  un- 
derstood what  despatching  meant,  were  accus- 
tomed to  work  under  its  rules.  It  proved, 
nevertheless,  a  very  difficult  task.  In  the  run- 
ning of  trains  a  very  great  deal  precedes  de- 
spatching. There  is  a  carefully  worked  out 
schedule  which  has  been  more  or  less  tried  out 
for  months.  How  many  of  these  conditions  are 
present  in  the  industrial  shop?  Where  are  the 
standardized  conditions,  where  are  the  stand- 
ardized operations?  Where  the  discipline,  the 
maintenance,  the  schedules? 

Railroad  shops  as  to  despatching  are  in  the 
same  backward  condition  as  most  industrial 
shops.  Therefore  it  was  found  that  despatch- 
ing by  itself  could  not  be  immediately  applied, 
that  many  other  preparations  were  necessary, 
that  if  the  application  of  other  principles  was 
worked  out,  despatching  would  become  easy. 


DESPATCHING  253 

The  application  of  principles  will  change  a 
mob  into  an  army,  whether  in  field  or  shop. 
The  frenzy  of  a  mob  shows  itself  in  a  lynching, 
but  the  courage  of  an  army  ought  to  be  highest 
in  defeat.  When  men,  foremen,  officials,  equip- 
ment, supplies,  had  been  subjected  for  a  year 
to  the  operation  of  principles,  a  beginning  was 
made  of  despatching  locomotive  repairs.  The 
subject  was  attacked  from  both  ends  at  once. 
Locomotives  were  worth  a  great  deal  to  the 
road,  a  day's  service  being  estimated  at  $35; 
therefore  the  first  plan  was  to  despatch  the 
repairs  as  a  whole,  locomotives  to  be  returned 
to  service  in  12  days,  18  days,  24  days,  accord- 
ing to  the  class  of  repair.  The  second  plan, 
worked  in  with  this,  was  to  despatch  each  sep- 
arate item  of  work  and  to  pick  out  those  items 
which,  taken  at  the  proper  time,  in  the  proper 
order,  and  in  the  proper  sequence,  would  result 
in  completing  a  locomotive  in  the  shortest  time. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  the  matter  of  re- 
pairs the  great  superiority  of  marine-repair 
despatching  over  locomotive-repair  despatch- 
ing. A  big  vessel  will  be  put  in  a  dry  dock,  at 
$5,000  a  day  charge  perhaps,  and  be  completely 
scraped,  repainted,  new  propeller  and  rudder 
fitted,  new  plates  inserted,  in  perhaps  three 


254  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

days.  Complete  circulating  pumps,  from  draw- 
ing to  installation,  will  be  completed  in  three 
days.  Where  individual  operations  are  summed 
up,  many  of  which  can  go  on  concurrently,  it 
is  hard  to  defend  a  longer  time  than  72  hours 
for  most  locomotive  repairs. 

It  is  also  interesting  to  note  that  in  the  sister 
branch  of  railroad  maintenance,  namely,  track 
repairs,  stupendous  tasks  of  snow  and  landslide 
removals,  bridge  rebuilding,  etc.,  are  commonly 
accomplished  in  hours  rather  than  in  days  or 
weeks. 

It  is  evident  that  brain  must  count  for  more 
than  muscle  in  attempting  to  apply  despatching 
to  locomotive  repairs.  We  had  to  know  that 
men  would  be  available,  therefore  discipline 
and  the  fair  deal  both  had  to  be  strengthened; 
ideals  of  order,  of  promptness,  of  economy  had 
to  be  instilled ;  common  sense  had  to  be  applied ; 
records  had  to  be  started,  but  other  principles 
also  had  to  be  applied.  Conditions  of  all  kinds 
had  to  be  standardized,  operations  had  to  be 
standardized,  schedules  had  to  be  made  out, 
and  definite  instructions  had  to  be  issued.  It 
is  really  very  much  easier  to  apply  a  few  prin- 
ciples than  to  remedy  several  million  defects. 
The  easiest  way  is  to  forget  these  defects  in 


DESPATCHING  255 

the  past,  ignore  them  for  the  present,  but  con- 
stantly obviate  them  for  the  future. 

A  new  plan  was  gradually  substituted  for  the 
old  plan.  In  the  railroad  shop  major  schedules 
were  worked  out  and  put  into  eifect  by  de- 
spatching; minor  and  subsidiary  schedules 
were  made  out  for  each  job,  each  man,  and 
each  machine,  the  lesser  jobs  fitting  like  parts 
of  a  puzzle  into  the  larger  schedules,  and  on 
the  basis  of  schedules,  however  often  they  were 
changed,  men,  machines  and  jobs  were  de- 
spatched. All  work,  instead  of  passing  directly 
from  foreman  to  worker  or  to  gang,  passed 
through  our  despatch  board.  Practice  was  per- 
fectly elastic,  but  procedure  was  not.  Schedules 
could  be  changed  on  a  moment's  notice  and 
also  the  sequence  of  despatching,  but  not  the 
fact  of  despatching.  The  particular  shape  and 
size  and  location  of  despatch  board  is  unim- 
portant, the  essential  being  that  it  is  suited  to 
the  work.  Whether  the  despatch  board  is  cov- 
ered with  parti-colored  strings,  or  made  up  of 
hooks,  clips,  or  pockets  to  receive  cards,  is  also 
unimportant  in  principle,  but  not  in  practice, 
since  a  method  under  which  many  of  your  de- 
spatching cards  blow  out  of  the  window  soon 
becomes  inoperative. 


256  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

The  name  despatching  was  adopted  from 
train  despatching,  and  train  operation  organ- 
ization was  adapted.  The  foreman  correspond- 
ed to  the  engineer,  a  new  official  was  created 
corresponding  to  the  despatcher,  a  messenger 
and  telephone  service  kept  the  despatcher's 
office  in  touch  with  the  work.  Despatching 
records,  however,  were  adapted  from  bank 
practice.  The  receiving  teller  takes  in  money, 
he  enters  the  amount  in  the  depositor's  time 
book,  he  credits  the  bank's  cash  book  with  the 
amount  received,  but  he  also  credits  the  ledger 
account  of  the  depositor.  When  the  depositor 
draws  a  check  it  is  presented  to  the  paying 
teller  who  hands  out  the  cash,  charges  the  cash 
account,  charges  the  depositor's  account.  At 
the  end  of  any  day  the  total  cash  in  hand  must 
correspond  with  the  sum  of  the  balances  in  all 
the  accounts.  Similarly  the  despatching  board, 
like  the  cash  book,  is  filled  with  prospective 
work.  As  fast  as  any  item  is  performed  it  is 
charged  to  the  order.  The  operator  is  charged 
with  the  pay  he  draws  and  credited  with  the 
work  he  performs. 

There  must  be  at  the  day's  or  week's  or 
month's  end  a  perfect  balance  between  all  work 
credited  to  operators  and  charged  to  orders, 


DESPATCHING  257 

also  a  perfect  balance  between  wages  and  other 
accounts  charged  and  totals  credited  to  work  in 
progress  and  delivered  since  last  balance.  The 
records  are  immediate,  absolutely  accurate, 
and  wholly  adequate. 

In  practice  it  has  proved  more  important  to 
despatch  unstandardized  work  than  to  stand- 
ardize undespatched  work,  even  as  on  railroads 
it  is  more  important  to  despatch  trains  even  if 
there  is  no  adherence  to  schedule  than  it  is  to 
run  trains  on  time  without  despatching. 

Despatching,  like  other  principles,  is  a  sub- 
division of  the  science  of  management,  a  part 
of  planning;  but  while  visible  to  the  eye  as  a 
distinct  pattern,  it  ought,  like  inlaid  work,  to 
be  intactile.  If  we  are  well  nothing  is  more 
beautifully  despatched  than  the  food  we  eat, 
from  plate  to  building  up  of  depleted  hidden 
tissue.  We  are  conscious  only  of  the  pleasure 
of  the  first  taste,  not  conscious  of  the  admirably 
regular  way  by  which  each  molecule  is  ulti- 
mately despatched  to  its  destination. 


THE  EIGHTH  PRINCIPLE:   STANDARDS 
AND  SCHEDULES 


The  bird  is  nearly  a  thousand  times  as  heavy  as  the 
air  its  bulk  displaces,  but  how  inimitable  is  the  work 
— for  the  way  of  a  bird  in  the  air  remains  as  wonder- 
ful to  us  as  it  was  to  Solomon.  As  a  child  I  watched 
a  hawk  soaring  far  up  in  the  blue  sky  and  sailing  for 
a  long  time  without  any  motion  of  its  wings  as  though 
it  needed  no  work  to  sustain  it,  but  it  was  kept  there 
by  some  miracle.  I  saw  it  sweep  in  a  few  seconds  in 
its  leisurely  flight  over  a  distance  that  to  me  was  en- 
cumbered with  every  sort  of  obstacle  which  did  not 
exist  for  it.  The  wall  over  which  I  had  climbed,  the 
ravine  I  had  crossed,  the  patch  of  undergrowth  through 
which  I  had  pushed,  all  these  were  nothing  to  the  bird, 
and  while  the  road  had  only  taken  me  in  one  direction, 
the  bird's  highway  led  everywhere  and  opened  into 
every  nook  and  corner.  How  wonderfully  easy  was  its 
flight.  There  was  not  a  flutter  of  its  pinions  as  it 
swept  over  the  fields  in  a  motion  that  seemed  as 
effortless  as  that  of  its  shadow! — LANGLEY. 

A  perfect  and  just  measure  shalt  thou  have;  that 
thy  days  may  be  lengthened  in  the  land  which  the 
Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee. — Deuteronomy,  25,  15. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   EIGHTH   PRINCIPLE:   STANDARDS 
AND  SCHEDULES 

HUMMING    birds    winter    in     Central 
America  and  nest  in  summer  in  Alaska, 
yet  bring  up  families  as  beautiful,  as 
courageous    and   as   achieving  as   themselves. 
The   stormy  petrel   flies  four  hundred  miles 
through  the  fog  and  strikes  its  burrow  exactly, 
storks  marked  in  Norway  have  been  caught  in 
South  Africa,  curlew  and  plover  are  supposed 
to  fly  at  the  rate  of  four  miles  a  minute. 

The  barn-yard  fowl,  if  frightened,  runs  and 
flutters  over  a  low  fence,  and  panting  with  ex- 
haustion is  soon  run  down.  The  rooster  uses 
his  wings  to  flap  when  he  crows,  the  hen  uses 
hers  to  brood  her  chicks,  their  ancestors  having 
forgotten  that  they  were  birds  and  that  the 
limitless  air  was  their  inheritance. 

"Whoever  heard  of  a  woman  tiring  when  she 
was  having  a  good  time,  even  if  she  had  danced 
261 


262          THE  PRINCIPLES  OP  EFFICIENCY 

all  night?"  said  Nietzsche,  and  the  police  in 
San  Francisco  on  March  20,  1910,  on  advice  of 
doctors  present,  stopped  a  dance  after  six  of 
the  contestants  had  been  dancing  15  hours  and 
6  minutes. 

Prof.  William  James  pointed  out  and  insisted 
on  the  second  wind,  the  ability  that  comes  after 
first  fatigue,  after  the  barn-yard  flutter,  to  en- 
dure and  achieve,  to  fly ! 

Standards  and  Schedules !  These  are  of  two 
kinds,  the  physical  and  chemical  standards  dis- 
covered and  established  in  the  last  century, 
standards  and  schedules  as  exact  as  mathe- 
matics, and  those  other  schedules  resting  on 
standards  whose  upper  limit  we  do  not  yet 
know.  We  have  our  five  senses.  We  can  taste 
or  smell  an  infinitesimal  taint  in  food,  we  can 
smell  the  millionth  part  of  a  grain  of  musk,  we 
can  discern  by  touch  the  ten-thousandth  part 
of  an  inch,  a  man  heard  2,390  miles  away  the 
boom  of  the  explosion  of  Krakatoa,  we  see  bil- 
lions and  billions  of  miles  distant  a  new  star 
bursting  into  brilliance;  but  there  is  a  region 
not  ten  miles  away  about  which  we  know  less 
than  we  know  of  the  nebulae,  because  we  can- 
not reach  it  with  our  senses,  nor  yet  with  our 
physics  and  mathematics — a  region  ten  miles 
or  less  straight  down  under  foot. 


STANDARDS  AND  SCHEDULES  263 

By  bringing  into  play  our  instruments,  our 
bolometers  which  measure  the  millionth  of  a 
degree  of  heat,  our  ultra-microscope  which  al- 
most enables  us  to  see  the  atoms,  one  one-mil- 
lionth of  a  second  measured  on  the  tracing  of  a 
tuning  fork's  vibrations — by  the  refinements  of 
physics  and  chemistry  we  can  peer  into  the  true 
inwardness  of  material  things;  so  we  use  stop 
watches  for  time  and  motion  studies  of  our  ma- 
chines ;  but  when  we  wish  to  schedule  work  f  oi 
sentient  beings,  then  our  mathematics  fail  and 
we  fall  back  on  experiments  inspired  by  faith. 
Four  miles  a  minute  the  flight  of  a  little  bird, 
99  per  cent  and  more  the  efficiency  of  the  fire- 
fly's flight,  the  sixth  sense  of  the  blinded  bat, 
the  sudden  stop  of  the  grizzly  bear  from  full 
trot  in  darkest  night  when  he  was  within  a  foot 
of  the  finest  flower  wire  leading  to  a  flash-light 
camera ! 

All  around  us,  everywhere  nature  has  been 
showing  us  that  increased  result  comes  from 
lessened  effort,  not  from  greater  effort,  but  we 
have  been  too  stupid  to  understand.  Because  it 
takes  one  pound  of  coal  to  produce  one  horse 
power,  and  two  pounds  of  coal  to  produce  two 
horse  power,  because  it  is  harder  to  jump  over  a 
fence  four  feet  high  than  over  a  fence  two  feet 
high,  because  it  is  more  difficult  to  jump  over  a 


264          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

fence  five  feet  high,  we  have  non-reasoned  back 
from  results  to  effort,  and  concluded  that  effort 
should  be  gauged  by  result  which  is  in  accord 
with  one  set  of  experiences  but  wholly  contrary 
to  the  larger  experience.  Any  specific  kind  of 
effort,  measured  by  results,  falls  from  a  max- 
imum to  a  minimum  and  then  rises  again  to 
another  maximum,  so  that  there  is  only  one 
point  where  maximum  result  is  attained  for 
minimum  effort,  a  point  properly  scheduled  at 
100  per  cent. 

As  to  specific  result  it  may  be  attained  in 
many  ways.  Tame  geese  in  Germany  are  slowly 
driven  to  market  in  September,  waddling  a  few 
miles  each  day.  They  are  prepared  for  the  trip 
by  walking  through  soft,  warm  tar  and  then 
through  fine  gravel  and  sand,  so  that,  thus  shod, 
their  feet  may  stand  the  weary  march.  Wild 
geese  fly  from  Golof nin  Bay,  Alaska,  to  the 
tropics  in  less  time  than  the  tame  geese  waddle 
a  hundred  miles.  The  wild  goose's  distance  and 
time  schedule  would  be  ridiculous  for  the  tame 
goose,  the  latter's  schedule  an  absurdity  not  less 
cruel  for  the  wild  geese. 

As  to  the  variation  in  effort  for  similar  con- 
ditions, we  have  but  to  remember  that  while  it 
is  pleasant  to  spend  from  six  to  twelve  hours  in 


STANDARDS  AND  SCHEDULES       265 

bed,  it  is  an  affliction  to  spend  all  one's  time  in 
bed,  a  greater  affliction  than  to  have  no  bed  and 
to  snatch  rest  as  one  can  on  a  long  tramp  or 
journey,  for  men  can  sleep  even  when  walking. 
It  is  easy  to  walk  three  or  four  miles  an  hour ; 
it  is  intensely  wearying  to  stand  waiting  or  to 
walk  two  miles  an  hour,  when  shopping  with 
one's  wife — more  wearying  than  the  five-mile 
an  hour  trot  of  the  Yukon  winter  trail.  It  is  easy 
to  ride  a  bicycle  10  to  15  miles  an  hour,  it  is 
desperately  hard  to  ride  1  mile  an  hour  or  20 
miles  an  hour,  and  either  endeavor  will  send  the 
rider  exhausted  to  bed.  How  much  more  ex- 
hausting it  is  to  breathe  either  fast  or  slow 
than  to  breathe  naturally,  the  latter  being  abso- 
lutely effortless  and  kept  up  from  birth  to 
death,  waking  or  sleeping.  Natural  breathing, 
natural  heart  beats,  natural  temperature,  are 
100  per  cent  efficiency. 

This  law  of  the  reduction  of  effort  for  greater 
results  crops  up  in  the  most  unexpected  places, 
so  that  engineers  have  evolved  the  definite  crit- 
ical speed,  the  speed  of  maximum  result  for  rel- 
atively least  expenditure. 

In  fast  steamers  resistance  does  not  increase 
with  the  cube  of  the  speed,  but  there  are  certain 
higher  critical  speeds  at  which  resistance  is 


Scale  of  Effort 
TYPICAL  MAN-EFFICIENCY  DIAGRAM 


STANDARDS  AND  SCHEDULES  267 

less.  Nearly  100  years  ago  in  England  a  man 
running  express-passenger  canal  boats  had 
them  towed  by  galloping  horses  at  a  speed  of 
nearly  14  miles  an  hour,  claiming  this  was 
easier  than  a  slower  speed.  He  was  ridiculed 
by  scientists  who  opposed  the  law  of  cubic  in- 
crease of  resistance.  A  bet  was  made,  dyna- 
mometers attached,  and  up  to  8  miles  the  law 
held  good ;  but  above  8  miles  the  canal  boat  be- 
gan to  climb  out  of  the  water,  so  that  at  14 
miles  the  actual  resistance  was  small.  This 
was  the  origin  of  the  hydroplane  boat.  A  wise 
Kansas  mare  hitched  to  a  plow,  pulling  heavily, 
would  look  back,  take  in  the  situation,  and  in- 
crease her  speed.  The  plow  immediately  pulled 
easier  because  the  greater  speed  flung  the  cling- 
ing earth  free  of  the  mold  board,  thus  greatly 
lessening  friction. 

Time  and  motion  studies  having  been  made 
as  to  all  the  work  of  a  gang  of  men,  both  con- 
ditions and  operations  were  standardized  and 
an  efficiency  reward  was  offered.  The  results 
are  shown  in  the  diagram  opposite.  Nearly 
all  the  men  are  grouped  between  80  per  cent 
and  120  per  cent,  with  the  greatest  density 
around  120  per  cent — the  region  of  least  effort. 
The  hardest  worked  man  both  physically  per 


268  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

unit  of  time  and  physically  per  unit  of  result, 
was  Poder,  with  an  efficiency  of  7.8  per  cent. 
He  was  more  exhausted  at  the  month's  end 
than  Harris,  who  attained  139.2  per  cent; 
Keief,  King,  and  Clohessy  were  more  tired  at 
the  day's  end  than  Boyce  and  Hauf;  Magill 
was  as  tired  as  Hauf. 

A  casual  observation  of  the  passengers  leav- 
ing the  Atlantic  Highland  boats  at  the  Rector 
Street  pier  in  New  York  on  a  Monday  morning 
in  summer,  shows  conclusively  that  in  the 
crowd,  some  (a  very  few)  travel  over  the  long 
gallery  from  boat  to  street  at  the  rate  of  6  miles 
an  hour;  others,  quite  a  bunch,  at  the  rate  of 
4  miles ;  but  the  great  body  travels  at  the  rate 
of  3  miles,  and  there  are  stragglers,  mothers 
with  little  children,  old  ladies  of  social  weight, 
also  lingering  lovers,  who  travel  at  rates 
shrinking  to  2  miles  an  hour.  The  able-bodied, 
in  so  far  as  not  hindered,  have  an  average  rate 
of  4  miles;  and  from  these  observations 
of  voluntary  effort,  we  can  well  establish 
a  walking  standard  of  4  miles  an  hour 
with  disapprobation  if  the  rate  falls  below 
3  miles,  with  special  reward  to  those  who 
reach  and  pass  the  4-mile  mark.  Had  we 
diagrammed  these  walkers  on  the  pier,  they 


STANDARDS  AND  SCHEDULES  269 

would  have  given  us  a  picture  similar  to  the 
machine-shop  curve  of  Poder  to  Harris.  Both 
diagram  and  description  show  that  the  increase 
of  effort  between  100  per  cent  and  140  per  cent 
efficiency  is  very  slight — only  25  per  cent,  quite 
within  the  limit  of  normal  variation  above  the 
rational  average;  and  it  also  shows  how  it  is 
possible  for  a  good  man  to  deliver  nearly  twenty 
times  as  much  as  the  incompetent  man,  four 
times  as  much  as  the  laggards,  twice  as  much 
as  the  haphazard  workers.  Poder,  Keief,  King 
and  Clohessy  could  never  become  Hauf,  Boyce, 
and  Harris.  Piece  rates  based  on  the  perform- 
ance of  Harris  would  be  as  ridiculous  for  Po- 
der as  wild-geese  schedules  imposed  on  tame 
geese  fattening  for  Michaelmas;  but,  without 
injustice  to  Keief,  King,  and  Clohessy,  the  nat- 
ural Haufs,  Boyces,  and  the  Harris  clan  can  be 
selected  for  their  natural  work  and  be  corre- 
spondingly rewarded. 

There  are  places  where  Poder  and  Clohessy 
would  fit,  even  as  the  tame  goose,  plucked  for 
its  feathers  and  prepared  for  the  feast,  shows 
100  per  cent  efficiency,  and  the  thin,  stringy 
wild  goose  is  far  below  par.  The  schedule  must 
fit  the  man  and  the  man  the  schedule;  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  a  definite  universal  schedule. 


Miles  per  Hr. 


STANDARDS    AND   SCHEDULES  271 

At  best  there  is  a  broad  schedule  band  (in  the 
diagram,  the  region  between  80  per  cent  and 
120  per  cent)  and  the  records  will  show  clearly 
whether  the  men  have  been  selected  to  fit  the 
schedule  and  whether  the  schedule  fits  the  man. 
Irrespective  of  any  current  wage  rate,  a  shop 
cannot  be  filled  with  the  Hauf  to  Harris  thor- 
oughbreds for  the  wages  that  will  attract  the 
Poders  and  Clohessys. 

If  all  conditions  were  absolutely  standard- 
ized, if  all  operations  were  also  perfectly  stand- 
ardized, piece  rates  might  apply  with  reason- 
able equity  and  fairness  to  the  tame  geese  trav- 
eling the  same  road  in  the  same  weather  with 
the  same  tar-sand  shoes;  but  what  about  the 
wild  geese  far  overhead?  They  must  have 
schedules  based  on  other  standards. 

The  physiological  objection  to  piece  rates  is 
that  they  stimulate  strenuousness,  increase  of 
effort,  when  what  we  want  is  a  betterment  of 
conditions  so  as  to  achieve  greater  result  with 
less  effort. 

In  the  diagrams  on  pages  270  and  272  the 
speeds  per  hour  for  the  best  athletic  records 
from  start  up  to  100  miles  show  the  time  rela- 
tions between  different  methods  for  the  same 
distance.  The  results  are  tabulated  as  follows : 


272  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

TABLE  OF  ATHLETIC  RECORDS 

One  Mile  One  Hundred  Miles 


Actual  Relative  Actual  Relative  Rela- 

speed  speed  speed      speed     tive  to 

1  mil© 

Amateur  walking..     9.2  100  4.8           100           52 

Amateur    running..    14.  152  5.6            117            40 

Amateur   skating.  .    21.8  237  14.              292            64 
Amateur  bicycle 

unpaced    31.4  341  20.2            421            64 

Professional  bicycle 

paced    55.3  601  35.5            740            64 

It  is  known  that  each  of  these  men  put  forth 
his  best  efforts,  and  assuming  the  men  to  be 
equal  in  strength,  endurance,  skill,  we  become 
certain  that  the  mere  addition  of  skates  to  the 
shoes  increased  the  speed  for  the  same  effort 
2.37  times  at  one  mile  and  2.92  times  at  100 
miles;  that  the  substitution  of  a  bicycle  for 
skates  increases  the  speed  3.4  times  at  one  mile, 
4.2  times  at  100  miles ;  and  that  the  addition  of 
a  helping  pacer,  who  in  no  way  touches  the. 
rider,  merely  shielding  him  from  the  wind,  in- 
creases the  speed  above  walking  six-fold  at  one 
mile,  7.4  times  at  100  miles.  All  these  records 
are  of  abnormal,  excessive,  and  extreme  speeds, 
but  who  can  doubt  that  the  relation  would  re- 
main the  same  if  they  were  halved,  thus  brought 
down  to  high  normal — 4.6  miles  for  walking, 
28  miles  for  paced  bicycle? 

The  time  may  come  when  aeroplanes  rising 
on  the  wind  as  do  the  birds  will  glide  on  up- 


STANDARDS    AND    SCHEDULES 


273 


ward  currents,  as  also  do  the  birds,  at  a  rate  of 
two  miles  a  minute  for  a  thousand  miles,  or 
twenty-five  times  as  fast  as  the  walker,  yet  ex- 
ert no  muscular  effort,  using-  delicate  instru- 
ments to  feel  the  wind,  and  intelligence  to  guide 
the  flyer. 

Other  facts  appear  from  the  table  and  dia- 


A.ma  eur  Walking  Records. 


40  60  80  100  120 

Distance  Covered-Miles. 

The  Engineering  Magazine 

DIAGRAM    SHOWING    SPEEDS    IN    MILES    PER    HOUR   FOR 

BEST  ATHLETIC   RECORDS.      LONG   DISTANCES. 

FOR  SHORT  DISTANCES  SEE  PAGE  270. 


274  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

gram.  For  the  100-mile  stretch  compared  to 
the  one-mile  stretch,  both  bicycle  and  skating 
fall  to  only  64  per  cent  of  the  speed,  but  walk- 
ing and  running  collapse  respectively  to  52  and 
to  40  per  cent,  so  the  man-used  and  man-driven 
tools  not  only  vastly  increase  the  speed,  but 
maintain  it  at  a  far  higher  proportion.  At  one 
mile  the  paced  bicycle  rider  is  only  six  times  as 
fast  as  the  walker,  at  100  miles  he  is  nearly 
seven  and  a  half  times  as  fast. 

It  also  appears  that  the  trotting  horse,  who 
begins  faster  than  the  skater,  is  distanced  by 
him  at  24  miles,  and  after  that  steadily  falls  be- 
hind. The  horse  does  not  have  the  man's  cour- 
age. The  man  helped  only  by  his  bicycle  is 
throughout  faster  than  the  trotter,  faster  than 
the  running  horse  after  the  third  mile. 

For  physical,  for  chemical,  and  for  electrical 
relations  we  can  set  absolute  standards: 

T746  watts. 

33,000  foot-pounds  per  minute 
1  horse  power=*{  2,545  heat  units  per  hour 


0.175  pounds  carbon  oxidized  per  hour 
L  2.64  Ib.  of  water  evaporated  per  hour 


Practical  standards  are  very  different — one 
pound  of  coal  in  steam  engines  per  horse-power 
hour,  10  pounds  of  water  evaporated  per  pound 
of  coal  instead  of  15 ! 


STANDARDS  AND  SCHEDULES  275 

For  physical  standards  we  can  measure  the 
extent  of  the  shortcomings  and  diligently  strive 
to  lessen  the  losses;  but  in  making  standards 
and  schedules  for  man  we  must  first  classify  our 
men,  and  then  we  must  so  equip  them  that  they 
can  as  easily  do  six  times,  seven  times — yes, 
perhaps  one  hundred  times  as  much. 

Walking  9.2  miles  an  hour  is  as  to  normal 
walking  200  per  cent  efficient,  not  a  normal 
standard  for  any  regular  work,  but  compared 
to  the  effortless  glide  of  the  aeroplane  it  is  only 
10  per  cent  efficient. 

To  establish  rational  work  standards  for  men 
requires  indeed  motion  and  time  studies  of  all 
operations,  but  it  requires  in  addition  all  the 
skill  of  the  planning  manager,  all  the  skill  of 
the  physician,  of  the  humanitarian,  of  the  phys- 
iologist, of  the  psychologist ;  it  requires  infinite 
knowledge,  directed,  guided  and  restrained  by 
hope,  faith  and  compassion. 

The  promise  already  partly  fulfilled  and 
clearly  held  out  as  to  the  future  is  that  greater 
and  greater  results  shall  follow  constantly  di- 
minishing effort. 


XI 

THE    NINTH    PRINCIPLE:    STANDARD- 
IZED CONDITIONS 


Darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep.  And  the 
Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters. 
And  God  said,  Let  there  be  light:  and  there  was  light. 
And  ...  it  was  good:  and  God  divided  the  light 
from  the  darkness. 

Maximum  vitality  and  maximum  efficiency  are  tied 
up  with  each  other.  What  makes  for  one  makes  for 
both.  To  learn  how  to  attain  one  is  to  learn  how  to 
attain  the  other. — DR.  LUTHER  GULICK. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    NINTH    PRINCIPLE:    STANDARD- 
IZED CONDITIONS 

"HITCH  YOUR  WAGON  TO  A  STAR" 

THE  larva,  grub,  or  worm  crawls  from 
the  egg  and  its  existence  is  governed 
by  the  accident  of  its  birth  site  and 
surroundings.  Usually  it  stays  where  it  was 
hatched,  eats  and  grows,  and  it  arouses  neither 
enthusiasm  by  the  interest  of  its  life  nor  ad- 
miration for  its  beauty.  It  is  elementally  dull 
and  prosaic,  for  it  has  neither  standardized  it- 
self to  command  conditions  nor  standardized 
conditions  to  suit  itself.  At  last,  having  reached 
the  limit  of  its  growth,  it  passes  into  the  pupa 
or  chrysalid  state  of  coma,  and  emerges,  physi- 
cally, spiritually  and  mentally  a  different  indi- 
vidual. 

Who   would   recognize   in   the   purple   em- 
279 


280  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

peror  butterfly  the  caterpillar  of  its  previous 
existence?  The  butterfly  is  as  beautiful  as  the 
worm  was  repulsive,  as  mobile  as  the  worm 
was  slow,  a  creature  of  the  sunlight  and  sky 
instead  of  the  shadows  and  of  the  earth. 

The  water-beetle  is  the  lord  of  the  elements. 
It  runs  on  land  with  speed,  under  the  water  it 
is  one  of  the  quickest  and  most  graceful  of 
swimmers,  and  through  the  air  it  is  the  fastest 
of  flyers;  it  seeks  its  food  in  the  water,  it 
emerges  at  dusk,  and  after  dark  flies  toward 
the  moon,  or  to  its  destruction  in  some  electric 
light.  More  perfectly  than  any  other  creature 
it  has  standardized  itself  to  play  with  and  com- 
mand all  the  elements  but  fire. 

The  spider,  not  so  standardized  to  earth, 
water,  and  air,  as  the  water-beetle,  has  not  to 
the  same  degree  conquered  the  elements.  The 
beetle  swims,  runs,  flies  without  effort  because 
its  ancestors  had  aspirations  and  early  achieved 
victory.  The  spider  works  consciously,  much 
as  men  might  work.  She  drops  from  a  height, 
not  with  wings  to  sustain  her,  but  holding  on  to 
a  thread  made  for  the  occasion,  strong  and 
elastic.  In  mid-fall  she  can  stop,  the  factor  of 
safety  being  nothing,  yet  I  have  never  seen  the 
silken  thread  break.  She  can  regain,  if  she 


STANDARDIZED  CONDITIONS  281 

wishes,  her  exact  starting  point,  or,  reaching 
the  ground,  can  cut  loose  and  run.  The  spider 
would  disdain  as  clumsy  a  suspension  bridge, 
for  she  constructs  a  canopy  whose  outlying  guy 
stays  have,  in  proportion  to  her  length,  greater 
reach  than  the  span  of  the  Brooklyn  Bridge, 
whose  strength  in  proportion  to  construction  is 
greater  than  that  of  the  best  steel  wire.  The 
balloon  spider,  if  at  all  interested  in  human 
balloons,  must  despise  them!  She,  on  a  calm, 
sun-lit  summer  day,  will  spin  out  a  filament 
which,  warmed  by  the  sun  rises  straight  into 
the  air.  Whether  the  spider,  like  the  soaring 
birds,  first  locates  an  upward  air  current  and 
then  spins  her  thread,  or  starts  an  upward  air 
current  though  the  warmed  molecules  adhering 
to  the  thread  I  do  not  know;  but  in  any  case 
the  filament  rises,  rises,  until  the  spider  knows 
it  will  lift  her,  and  then  loosening  hold,  she 
soars  skyward  to  be  swept  by  some  upper  air 
drift  miles  away  in  a  few  hours,  her  relatively 
great  weight  carried  upward  and  sustained  by 
a  thread  weighing  not  the  hundredth  part  of 
what  she  weighs.  Standardized  conditions  there 
must  be  of  almost  inconceivably  delicate  adjust- 
ment, of  sunlight,  of  calm,  of  length  and  make 
of  thread. 


282  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

Both  soaring  birds  and  balloon  spiders  and 
many  floating  seeds  and  spores  use  directly  the 
heat  of  the  sun  to  sustain  them.  What  bird 
ever  soared  at  night  or  upward  through  a  fog? 

There  are  other  insects  that  have  solved 
deeper  mysteries  than  either  the  water-beetle 
or  the  spider.  Men  can  run  on  the  earth,  not 
as  well  as  the  beetle ;  they  can  swim,  not  as  well 
as  the  beetle;  they  can  glide  through  the  air, 
not  as  well  as  the  beetle;  they  can  climb  down 
or  up  ropes,  not  as  readily  as  the  spider;  they 
can  stretch  suspension  bridges  not  comparable 
to  the  canopy  of  the  spider;  they  can  soar  in 
balloons,  not  as  safely  or  as  conveniently  as  the 
balloon  spider — for  these  are  all  mechanical 
operations.  But  the  firefly  produces  light  by  a 
chemistry  of  whose  laws  and  operations  we 
have  no  grasp.  The  firefly  has  not  standardized 
itself  to  the  daylight.  It  wanted  light  when  it 
was  night,  not  general,  diffused  and  impersonal 
light,  so  it  creates  in  the  velvet  darkness  the 
momentary  and  intermittent  personal  flash,  for 
the  moment  making  itself  the  centre  of  the  visi- 
ble universe.  It  not  only  refused  to  acquiesce 
in  the  standard  light  of  day  and  darkness  of 
night,  but  it  remade  the  conditions  of  the  uni- 
verse to  suit  itself. 


STANDARDIZED  CONDITIONS  283 

This  is  not  all  of  the  marvel.  The  firefly  and 
the  human  both  have  eyes,  and  in  these  eyes 
are  minute  nerves  which  make  us  aware  of 
light  and  interpret  to  us  the  shape  and  color 
and  distance  of  all  the  outside  world. 

There  are,  therefore,  two  distinct  methods 
of  standardizing  conditions — to  standardize 
ourselves  so  as  to  command  the  unalterable  ex- 
traneous facts,  earth,  water,  air,  gravity,  wave 
vibrations;  to  standardize  the  outside  facts  so 
that  our  personality  becomes  the  pivot  on  which 
all  else  turns.  With  the  living  example  of  the 
beetle  who  commands  earth,  water  and  air, 
with  the  example  of  the  firefly,  which,  without 
effort  makes  light  where  there  was  none,  with 
the  lesson  of  our  own  eyes  which  have  given  us 
a  beginning  of  command  of  infinite  space  and 
time,  shall  we  fear  to  attempt  standardizations 
of  conditions  now  but  dimly  conceivable? 

The  easiest  way  for  any  individual  to  live  his 
own  life  in  fullest  measure  is  either  to  stand- 
ardize himself  to  suit  the  environment  or  to 
standardize  the  environment  to  suit  himself. 
The  horse  and  other  animals  stay  where  they 
are  in  winter  and  grow  thick  and  long  fur  to 
meet  the  rigors  of  the  climate.  The  bird  of 
passage  changes  itself  not  at  all,  but  suits  the 


284  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

climate  to  its  taste  by  picking  out  the  one  it 
wants  and  going  to  it.  Either  way  is  an  easy 
way,  but  man,  the  youngest  of  nature's  brood, 
has  attempted  to  satisfy  great  wants  without 
standardizing  either  himself  or  the  environ- 
ment. 

To  build  the  Great  Pyramid  absorbed  the 
lives  of  100,000  men  for  20  years,  and  it  is  the 
greatest  monument  of  inefficiency  the  world 
bears  because  conditions  of  building  were  not 
standardized;  yet  the  Egyptian  builders  had 
eyes  which  reached  out  and  recognized, 
through  billions  of  miles  of  empty  inter- 
vening space,  the  groupings  of  the  stars. 
Without  sweat  on  our  brows,  nor  callos- 
ities on  our  hands,  supplementing  the  same  hu- 
man eyes  with  telescope,  with  spectroscope  and 
with  camera,  we  tear  the  distant  stars  apart, 
we  dissect  them,  we  drag  them  into  light  out  of 
the  depth  of  darkness,  we  assist  at  their  birth, 
trace  their  lives  and  predict  their  extinction. 
Thus,  at  last  has  man  begun  to  make  himself 
infinite  and  the  universe  small. 

In  the  building  of  the  pyramids,  of  the  Par- 
thenon, and  of  St.  Peters,  man  followed  a  law- 
less fancy  and  not  an  efficiency  need,  or  the 
work  and  time  and  expense  would  not  have  been 


STANDARDIZED  CONDITIONS  285 

so  lavish  for  so  small  return.  Man  has,  in  fact, 
until  very  recently  remained  in  the  larval  state. 
He  put  on  clothes  to  keep  out  the  bitter  cold, 
but  little  further  advanced  than  the  Tierra  del 
'  Fuegan  who  shifts  a  patch  of  fur  between  his 
naked  body  and  the  wind.  He  huddled  over  a 
fitful  fire  to  banish  the  cold,  and  these  two  fee- 
ble steps  upward  in  the  adjustment  of  self  and 
the  conquest  of  environment  were  almost  all. 
At  best,  until  recently  he  has  tried  to  imitate 
the  beetle  and  the  spider  rather  than  imitate 
the  firefly.  He  invented  shoes  that  he  might 
travel  along  the  rough  trails,  he  invented  skates 
that  he  might  glide  over  the  ice,  he  invented 
boats  and  sails  that  water  and  air  might  carry 
him.  But  at  last  he  has  awakened. 

Roads  were  built  that  a  barefooted  multitude 
might  travel  in  slow  comfort.  The  distance 
from  Paris  to  Bordeaux  is  323  miles,  and  this 
the  fastest  walker  once  covered  in  114  hours 
and  42  minutes,  or  at  the  rate  of  2.8  miles  an 
hour.  Even  after  a  standardized  path  had 
been  created  it  took  many  generations  before 
a  bright  mind  evolved  the  idea  that  a  revolving 
wheel  would  be  more  adapted  to  the  road  than 
alternating  footsteps,  so  we  had  the  roller,  the 
cart,  the  wheelbarrow,  and  at  last  the  bicycle 


286  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

was  perfected;  but  even  this  last  step  took 
three  generations.  In  the  bicycle  man  still  used 
the  alternating  swing  of  the  legs,  but  he  pro- 
pelled himself  nearly  seven  times  as  fast,  so 
that  Huret  made  the  323  miles  in  16  hours  and 
45  minutes,  at  the  rate  of  19.8  miles  an  hour. 
But  why  should  a  man  use  his  own  efforts  ?  He 
cannot  trill  his  legs  as  he  can  his  fingers,  and 
even  if  he  could,  the  leg  cannot  push  much 
harder  than  200  pounds.  He  had  already  used 
steam  to  propel  locomotives  on  their  more  mi- 
nutely standardized  road,  so  he  finally  attached 
an  explosive  reciprocating  engine  to  his  road 
vehicle,  an  engine  capable  of  making  1,200 
strokes  a  minute  for  each  of  four,  eight,  four- 
teen, cylinders,  as  compared  to  the  140  strokes 
of  each  of  two  legs ;  an  engine  capable  of  kick- 
ing 100  pounds  per  square  inch  for  as  many 
inches  as  the  piston  surface  has  area,  as  against 
the  man's  total  power  of  push  of  less  than  200 
pounds.  So  that  in  his  cushioned  seat,  with 
mere  pressure  of  hand  or  foot,  Gabriel,  in  the 
race  from  Paris  to  Madrid,  made  Bordeaux  in 
5  hours  13  minutes,  or  at  the  rate  of  62.5  miles 
an  hour.  In  this  race  the  automobiles  were  con- 
fined to  the  road,  the  road  was  narrow,  the  peo- 
ple many,  so  a  number  were  killed.  Why  there- 


STANDARDIZED  CONDITIONS  287 

fore  be  bound  by  the  limitations  of  a  road? 
Captain  Bellinger,  on  an  aeroplane,  makes  the 
same  trip  in  5  hours  21  minutes,  actual  flying 
time,  at  a  speed  of  60.35  per  hour.  Flying  speed 
will  soon  be  80  miles  an  hour  and  already  the 
French  mathematicians  are  pointing  out  that 
many  of  the  present  difficulties  of  flight  will 
vanish  at  the  higher  speed. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  because  condi- 
tions have  been  standardized,  instead  of  build- 
ing pyramids  nearly  500  feet  high  in  20  years, 
our  skyscrapers  go  up  600,  700,  800  feet  in  10 
months;  we  tunnel  through  mountains  and, 
laughing  at  wind  and  wave,  we  send  a  floating 
palace,  larger  than  St.  Peters,  through  the 
ocean  from  continent  to  continent  at  the  rate 
of  nearly  29  miles  an  hour. 

The  principles  under  which  the  methods  and 
practices  of  efficiency  are  grouped  have  been 
compared  to  the  skeleton  framework  of  a  dome. 
The  ribs  of  the  dome  are  the  principles,  but 
the  first  layer  can  be  started  with  one  part  of 
each  rib  in  place,  and  with  filling  of  various  de- 
vices to  complete  the  circle.  As  layers  are  added 
the  ribs  rise  until  they  come  closer  together  and 
at  last  coalesce.  Some  ribs  may  be  carried  to 
the  top,  others  may  stop  part  way  up,  their 


288  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

burden  carried  by  others.  In  this  series  of  es- 
says each  of  the  earlier  ribs  has  been  separate- 
ly carried  to  the  top,  so  that  now  there  is  less 
space  for  the  later  principles,  much  of  their 
duty  having  been  transferred  to  the  principles 
already  in  place.  To  maintain  reliable,  imme- 
diate and  adequate  records  we  must  have  stand- 
ardized conditions;  to  put  in  schedules  we 
must  have  standardized  conditions;  so  the 
standardizing  of  conditions  should  precede 
schedules.  But  unless  we  have  already  adopted 
ideal  schedules,  how  do  we  know  what  condi- 
tions, and  the  extent  to  which  they  must  be 
standardized?  Also,  unless  we  have  ideals  as 
to  standards,  how  can  we  create  a  high  sched- 
ule? 

^It  is  perhaps  because  schedules  and  con- 
ditions react  so  on  each  other  that  progress  is 
so  disappointingly  slow.  We  make  a  mean  little 
schedule  and  meanly  standardize  conditions  to 
suit.  Francis  Galton  points  out  that  the  Basutos 
in  Africa  have  the  greatest  difficulty  in  finding 
oxen  fit  for  the  f orespan.  The  ox  who  stays  in 
the  centre  of  the  herd  is  not  the  one  struck 
down  by  the  lion ;  so  through  many  generations 
the  independent  bulls  and  cows  have  been  elim- 
inated until  it  requires  careful  watching  to  se- 


STANDARDIZED  CONDITIONS  289 

lect,  and  careful  training  to  develop,  a  calf  ca- 
pable of  walking  ahead  and  leading  the  others. 

In  human  affairs,  however,  when  we  are  on 
any  schedule  there  are  some  who  are  not  afraid 
to  beat  it,  although  the  herd  puts  up  a  clamor 
that  the  effort  is  killing  and  should  be  pre- 
vented by  combination.  Perhaps  the  effort  is 
temporarily  killing;  but  ultimately  some  pro- 
gressive soul  aspires  to  a  yet  better  schedule, 
and  instead  of  foolishly  trying  to  beat  the  rec-  ~ 
ord  under  the  old  conditions,  restandardizes  the 
conditions  and  thus  makes  an  advanced  sched- 
ule easier  than  the  former  schedule. 

Records  are  again  broken  by  effort,  far  less 
at  its  maximum  than  on  the  old  schedule,  but 
nevertheless  discountenanced  by  the  conserva- 
tives, until  conditions  are  again  restandardized 
and  effort  is  still  further  diminished.  Who  has 
the  harder  time,  the  runner  who  precedes  the 
cavalcade  of  an  Oriental  magnate,  or  the  engi- 
neer of  our  fastest  trains?  Who  puts  forth  the 
greater  effort,  the  peon  who  twelve  hours  a  day 
carries  load  after  load  of  ore  in  sacks  on  his 
back  up  a  notched  pole  out  of  a  deep  Mexican 
mine,  or  the  fireman  who  for  two  hours  and  a 
half  between  New  York  and  Albany,  calling  it 
a  day's  work,  shovels  coal  for  the  fastest  train  ? 


290  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

In  the  locomotive  runs  across  Arizona  where  oil 
burners  are  used,  even  the  fireman's  work, 
usually  so  hard,  has  been  converted  into  watch- 
ing the  water  glass,  watching  the  smoke,  and 
with  his  fingers  turning  on  and  off  water  and 
oil  supply. 

The  grub  acquiesces  in  the  obvious ;  and  until 
the  last  century,  all  but  very  few  men  acqui- 
esced in  the  obvious.  By  force  of  ancestral 
habit  this  acquiescence  is  still  the  curse  of  most 
of  us.  Our  ideals,  our  schedules,  have  been  and 
are  too  low  instead  of  too  high.  The  18-hour 
trains  between  the  two  largest  American  cities 
are  on  the  highest  regular  long-distance  sched- 
ules thus  far  attained;  but  on  an  open  speed- 
way not  comparable  to  the  steel  track  in 
smoothness,  an  automobile  with  its  little  engine, 
and  one  man  guiding,  ran  faster  and  longer,  so 
that  in  comparison  18  hours  seems  slow;  and, 
quite  surely  somewhere,  some  time — perhaps  in 
China  or  Africa — Brennan's  gyroscope  car  on  a 
monorail,  indifferent  to  both  grades  and  curves, 
shortening  distances  one-fifth,  will  do  in  8 
hours  what  now  takes  18. 

In  planning  for  standardized  conditions,  it  is 
difficult  not  to  skip  the  present  and  plan  for  the 
future;  but  even  in  the  greatest  American 


v 


STANDARDIZED  CONDITIONS  291 

plants,  the  conditions  imposed  by  an  ignorant 
and  inefficient  past  are  accepted,  schedules  are 
toned  down,  and  painful  effort  crowds  out  in- 
telligent control.  In  one  large  plant  where  the 
heaviest  and  slowest  piece  took  only  40  days  for 
completion,  the  managers  acquiesced  for  many 
years  in  a  9-month  schedule,  and  after  much 
special  work  felt  pride  instead  of  humiliation 
in  a  6-month  schedule.  A  15-day  schedule  for 
general  repairs  to  a  locomotive  is  considered 
fast  time  and  the  average  is  more  nearly  30, 
but  if  the  time  for  each  item  is  separately  en- 
tered in  a  summary,  it  is  hard  to  discover  why 
3  days  would  not  be  enough. 

The  battleship  "Kansas"  of  the  American 
Navy  under  an  eminent  efficiency  commander 
went  into  dry-dock,  water  was  pumped  out  of 
the  dock,  hull  cleaned,  scraped,  painted,  rudder 
post  repacked,  and  the  vessel  floated  again  in 
less  than  24  hours.  For  a  steamer  immediate 
repairs  are  otherwise  important  than  for  an 
isolated  locomotive.  The  railroads,  on  the  other 
hand,  show  marvelous  speed,  generally  of  the 
main-strength  order,  in  clearing  away  a  wreck 
or  an  earth  slide  or  opening  a  snow  blockade. 

If  a  large  publishing  house  could  have  freed 
itself  from  its  own  entangling  traditions,  it 


292  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

could  have  added  a  million  dollars  a  year  to  its 
net  income.  The  organization  was  tried  out  on 
some  insignificant  minor  matters;  it  hesitated 
and  balked  and  trembled  for  six  months  over 
what  elsewhere  was  put  into  operation  in  six 
days  and  could  go  into  operation  in  six  hours, 
so  the  larger  plans  were  not  even  submitted  to 
it.  A  great  superintendent  of  another  plant  had 
uncontrollable  fear  of  boats  of  any  kind;  an- 
other large  and  successful  manufacturer  had 
fear  of  the  subway  in  New  York  and  could  not 
be  induced  to  go  below  ground.  Similar  fears 
overcome  occasionally  even  the  most  wideawake 
men,  and  often  the  main  obstacles  in  the  path 
of  progression  are  not  the  real  and  tangible 
difficulties,  but  the  imaginary  specters  that  ter- 
rorize and  paralyze  some  part  of  the  soul. 

Ideals  of  standardized  conditions  are  not 
Utopian,  but  are  immediately  and  intensely 
practical,  but  Ideals  must  precede  selective  ac- 
tion. The  Greek  sculptors  in  their  studies  took 
a  hand  from  one,  a  foot  from  another,  the  torso 
from  a  third,  the  face  and  head  from  others, 
and  aggregated  them  all  into  an  ideal ;  but  this 
ideal  existed  in  the  mind  or  the  sculptor  could 
not  have  selected. 


STANDARDIZED  CONDITIONS  293 

Who  can  tell  why  one  hand  is  beautiful  and 
another  not,  why  one  curve  is  pleasing  and  an- 
other disturbing?  We  recognize  some  forms 
of  beauty  as  unerringly  and  without  previous 
personal  or  race  experience  as  we  recognize 
that  one  note  harmonizes  with  another. 

It  is  far  easier  to  demonstrate  and  to  prove 
experimentally  the  value  of  standardized  condi- 
tions than  it  is  to  prove  beauty,  especially  for 
the  small  advances  that  are  immediately  possi- 
ble, because  all  these  advances  are  in  successful 
operation  somewhere;  but  often  it  is  easier  to 
break  away  from  all  traditions,  to  put  the  eye 
in  the  point  of  the  needle,  to  load  the  gun  from 
the  breech,  to  write  with  both  hands,  to  photo- 
graph instead  of  drawing,  to  make  half-tones 
instead  of  engravings,  to  pick  cotton  by  a  whirl- 
ing serrated  pencil  instead  of  with  fingers,  to 
turn  over  640  acres  of  land  with  gang  plows 
hitched  behind  mechanical  tractors,  than  it  is  to 
improve  on  the  old  way. 

The  artist  must  have  aesthetic  ideals,  the  mu- 
sicians, musical  ideals ;  but  the  man  who  would 
bring  about  standardized  conditions,  either  in 
himself  or  in  his  surroundings,  must  have  con- 
ceptions of  time,  of  effort,  of  cost;  he  must  in- 


294  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 


stinctively  recognize  that  for  each  operation 
there  is  one  combination  of  these  three  that  is 
\/  best  for  the  ideal  result.  That  ideal  result  may 
be  an  embroidered  scarf  which  the  lady  with 
unlimited  time,  simple  materials,  and  graceful, 
soothing  effort  has  wrought.  The  ideal  result 
may  be  the  destruction  of  an  enemy's  battle- 
ship, twelve  million  dollars  sunk  in  five  min- 
utes, by  guns  loaded,  accurately  aimed,  and  fired 
so  as  to  hit,  at  the  rate  of  two  salvos  a  minute. 
Time  minimum  at  whatever  cost  and  effort ! 

In  our  individual  lives,  in  our  shops,  in  our 
nation,  what  are  we  trying  to  accomplish  ?  Are 
we  taking  too  much  time,  is  it  costing  too  much, 
are  we  squandering  our  strength?  Are  we 
standardizing  conditions  so  that  time  will  not  be 
wasted,  so  that  money  will  not  be  thrown  away, 
so  that  effort  will  not  be  in  vain? 


XII 

THE    TENTH    PRINCIPLE:    STANDARD- 
IZED OPERATIONS 


Method  goes  far  to  prevent  trouble  in  business;  foi 
it  makes  the  task  easy,  hinders  confusion,  saves 
abundance  of  time  and  instructs  those  who  have  busi- 
ness depending  what  to  do  and  what  to  hope. — WILLIAM 
PENN. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    TENTH    PRINCIPLE:    STANDARD- 

v    IZED  OPERATIONS 

t 

44  T  TE  talked  to  me  for  ten  minutes,  out- 
lined enough  work  for  ten  years, 
and  expected  it  to  be  completed 
in  ten  days."  This  is  the  concise  summing  up  of 
an  interview  between  an  efficient  worker  and 
his  employer.  It  is  so  easy  to  perceive  short- 
comings, so  easy  to  plan  work,  so  hard  to  real- 
ize that  endless  activity  through  endless  time  is 
the  price  of  perfection.  The  hopefulness  of  hu- 
manity is  not  a  recent  development. 

Moses  came  down  into  camp  with  his  tables 
of  stone  and  the  ten  commandments.  It  took 
one  minute  and  fifty  seconds  to  read  them  slow- 
ly and  impressively.  Moses  expected  that  the 
tribes  assembled  would  listen,  practice,  and 
become  perfect  before  they  reached  the  Prom- 
ised Land.  Thirty-five  hundred  years  have 
elapsed  and  the  breach  of  most  of  the  com- 
297 


298          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

mandments  is  still  very  popular.  It  is  because 
the  virtues  extolled  are  not  obvious,  or  instinc- 
tive, that  they  have  to  be  graven  on  stone,  that 
they  have  to  be  repeated  weekly  if  not  daily, 
that  they  have  to  be  incorporated  in  our  codes 
and  enforced  by  our  courts.  Nature  has  ultimate 
ideals,  but  nature's  creatures  are  not  habitually 
idealists,  reverent,  kindly,  clean,  chaste,  or 
honest.  Ideals  are  so  obscure  that  most  of  us 
do  not  know  what  ideals  we  hold.  The  warrior 
still  holds  an  exalted  and  honorable  position, 
not  on  account  of  his  heroic  courage,  but  on 
account  of  the  potential  carnage.  The  corners 
engineered  in  Wall  Street,  the  ebb  outward  of 
enhanced  securities,  the  flow  inward  of  the 
same  securities  artificially  depreciated,  consti- 
tute a  tolerated  and  even  admired  phase  of 
modern  business ;  and  so  it  goes.  Two  minutes 
for  orders — a  life  time,  an  aeon,  for  realization ! 
Can  we  wonder,  therefore,  that  industrial 
operations  are  unstandardized — that  the  Moses 
who  should  lead  the  mob  out  of  the  wilderness 
flounders  around  for  forty  years,  never  arrives 
at  all,  and  (if  biblical  accounts  are  correct)  left 
as  villainous  a  band  of  marauders,  of  Apaches, 
as  ever  existed  to  fall  on  the  cities  of  Canaan? 
If  this  were  all  that  the  very  great  and  extraor- 


STANDARDIZED  OPERATIONS  299 

dinary  actual  leader  Moses  could  accomplish, 
need  we  wonder  that  the  ordinary  shop  man- 
agers are  not  more  successful? 

We  begin  indeed  with  ideals ;  we  expect  end 
results;  we  leap  over  the  intervening  station:] 
of  the  preceding  nine  principles,  much  as  if  we 
expected  a  train  to  run  from  New  York  to  San 
Francisco  with  one  helping  of  coal,  water, 
lubrication,  with  one  train  crew.  The  rope  is 
made  of  many  minor  strands ;  these  are  twisted 
from  the  numerous  threads,  and  these  in  turn 
have  been  spun  from  broken  and  carded  fibres. 
The  sheep's  fleece  is  a  unit,  a  matted  mass  that 
adheres  and  forms  a  whole,  not  because  it  is 
woven  like  a  blanket,  but  because  of  its  inter- 
woven confusion  and  tangle.  There  is  no  popu- 
lar English  word  for  a  single  thread  of  wool. 
Pull  one  lock  and  the  whole  fleece  comes,  not 
because  of  orderly  connection,  but  because  of 
disorderly  tangle. 

The  march  of  a  regiment  is  one  thing,  the 
surge  of  the  crowd  that  jostles  and  sways  us 
and  upsets  all  orderly  progress  is  another 
thing.  The  sheep  is  a  silly  creature,  the  only 
animal  that  would  perish  without  the  care  of 
man,  so  no  wonder  its  fleece  is  such  a  mess. 
The  matted,  tangled  hair  of  some  savages,  hair 


300  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

plastered  with  mud,  is  comparable  to  the  fleece, 
but  civilized  man  settles  the  problem  by  clip- 
ping his  head  hair  so  that  it  could  not  tangle 
if  it  tried,  settles  his  face  hair  by  shaving  off 
every  vestige  of  it  three  to  six  times  a  week; 
but  woman,  more  patient,  with  more  capacity 
for  taking  pains,  brushes  and  combs  out  her 
long  locks,  beginning  at  the  ends,  straightening 
a  few  inches  at  a  time,  then  reaching  higher 
up,  rearranging  all  the  parts  already  perfected, 
and  so  back  to  the  head,  until  each  of  the  40,00$ 
separate  hairs  lies  in  its  own  appointed  place 
as  to  all  the  others,  and  all  contribute  to  the 
marvelous  and  intricate  creations  that  as  -a 
whole  crown  her  lovely  head.  If  it  were  not 
for  the  ideal  plan  the  task  would  be  hopeless: 
At  least  once  a  day  does  woman  adjust  her 
hair,  the  40,000  single  hairs  to  the  general  plan, 
and  once  a  day  should  the  40,000  operations 
of  the  shop  be  straightened  out  in  accordance 
with  a  general  plan. 

A  comprehensive  shop  plan,  graphically  ex- 
pressed, looks  like  a  flattened  tree.  Each  leaf, 
the  separate  operations,  must  be  in  order  in  its 
appointed  place;  each  twig,  with  its  own 
definite  length,  must  reach  in  sequence  into  the 
main  branches,  these  in  turn  being  distributed 


STANDARDIZED  OPERATIONS  301 

at  determined  intervals  along  the  main  stem 
and  trunk. 

The  trunk  grows  upwards  and  outwards, 
from  the  force  implanted  in  the  seed,  the 
original  ideal  of  the  tree,  but  there  is  a  reverse 
flow  of  imprisoned  sunlight  and  captured  car- 
bon from  the  leaves  back  into  the  roots.  The 
separate  operations  in  a  shop  must  flow  into 
the  final  output;  but  from  the  expected  output 
backward,  there  must  be  a  plan  that  reaches 
back  to  each  detail  of  every  operation. 

It  is  one  thing  to  build  a  battleship  taking 
up  details  as  they  occur — the  haphazard  meth- 
od; it  is  another  thing  to  make  the  plan  first, 
place  all  the  details  where  they  belong  in  time, 
space,  relation  and  perfection,  and  have  them 
drop  into  place  with  the  accuracy  of  a  watch 
movement — the  difference,  in  fact,  between  the 
running  of  sand  through  an  unstandardized 
aperture,  and  the  precision  of  the  chronometer. 
Good  results  are  not  achieved  by  chance. 

If  we  throw  four  dice  with  the  hope  of  turn- 
ing up  four  aces,  we  find  that  the  chances  are 
enormously  against  us.  I  learned  this  practi- 
cally by  costly  experience  and  then  figured  it; 
out  mathematically.  At  a  German  country  fair 
the  fakirs  had  a  disk  divided  into  twenty-two* 


302  THE  PRINCIPLES  OP  EFFICIENCY 

sections,  alternately  white  and  red.  The  sec- 
tions carried  numbers  from  4  to  24.  There 
were  two  red  sections  with  the  number  14.  The 
cost  per  throw  of  four  dice  was  ten  cents,  but 
every  white  section  was  a  prize  winner ;  all  the 
reds  were  losers.  This  looked  fair,  an  even 
chance,  except  for  the  extra  red  14,  and  as  I 
gazed  I  perceived  that  the  prizes  were  large, 
running  from  twenty-five  cents  to  ten  dollars. 
All  I  could  possibly  risk  was  ten  cents;  every 
other  section  was  a  prize  winner  and  I  might 
win  ten  dollars.  I  threw  the  dice  again  and 
again,  but  somehow  or  other  the  numbers  I 
threw  came  between  9  and  19,  and  these  were 
all  red  numbers,  not  anything  as  low  as  8  or 
as  high  as  20,  the  lowest  of  the  prizes.  I  lost 
the  whole  of  the  dollar  that  had  been  saved  up 
for  the  day's  enjoyment,  for  the  miniature  rail- 
road, for  the  circus,  for  the  other  thrillers,  and 
then  I  invoked  mathematics.  All  the  possible 
different  throws  of  four  dice  are  1,296.  There 
is  one  chance  in  1,296  of  throwing  four  aces, 
of  throwing  four  sixes ;  there  are  four  chances 
of  throwing  5  or  23.  There  are  one  hundred 
and  forty-six  chances  of  throwing  14.  The 
chances  for  the  white  numbers  were  146,  for 
the  red  numbers,  1,156.  The  chances  against 


STANDARDIZED  OPERATIONS  303 

me  were  more  than  eight  to  one.  The  profes- 
sional gambler  wisely  loads  his  dice  so  they 
will  throw  aces  and  sixes  or  at  least  come  high. 
In  the  industrial  operation  the  chance  of  the 
desired  combination  coming  out  of  itself  is  just 
about  the  chance  of  throwing  four  aces. 

We  must  imitate  the  professional  gambler, 
and  either  select  those  combinations  that  will 
give  us  the  inevitable  advantage — that  is,  plan 
a  board  to  suit — or  we  must  load  the  dice  so  as 
to  offset  the  chances  against  us. 

There  is  only  one  game  of  chess.  There  is 
the  board,  standardized  as  to  size,  15  to  16 
inches  square,  just  64  squares,  32  pieces,  each 
with  its  definite  rights  of  movement.  It  looks 
like  a  very  limited  and  standardized  condition, 
yet  possibilities  of  operation  are  so  infinite  that 
if  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  world  played  chess 
continually  from  now  until  the  end  of  time, 
they  could  not  exhaust  all  the  variations,  thus 
experimentally  determining  which  was  the  best 
possible  game,  that  one  in  which  each  player 
makes  the  best  possible  attacking  and  resistant 
moves,  yet  the  total  number  of  squares  traveled 
is  a  minimum.  It  might  be  a  long  drawn-out 
game  and  it  might  be  a  short  one — who  knows, 
how  shall  we  ever  know?  If,  therefore,  there 


304  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

is  such  infinite  variety  and  possibility  in  chess, 
which  has  been  played  for  centuries,  how  can 
we  expect  shop  operations  to  standardize  them- 
selves ? 

I  have  before  me  one  volume  of  the  standard- 
practice  instructions  covering  the  manufactur- 
ing of  the  gasoline  automobile  truck  car.  It 
•contains  278  isometric  designs  or  illustrations, 
314  pages  of  printed  matter,  and  spaces  for 
the  times  and  rates  of  1,231  distinct  operations. 
Each  one  of  these  operations  was  preceded  by 
many  designs  until  one  was  accepted  as  ap- 
proximately good.  The  design  was  split  up 
into  its  component  parts,  investigation  made 
as  to  material  of  each  piece,  how  strong  it 
should  be,  what  heat  treatment  should  be  given, 
on  what  machines  it  should  be  shaped,  in  what 
sequence,  by  which  worker.  As  to  each  piece 
and  operation  many  time  studies  are  made,  and 
finally  from  the  mass  of  accurately  ascertained 
or  available  information,  a  carefully  pre-studied 
work-instruction  card  is  made  out.  All  these 
items  of  planning  must  precede  the  time  and 
cost  ratings.  Are  you  appalled  at  the  mass  of 
detail  that  precedes  the  making  of  a  book?  If 
we  have  but  100  copies  to  print  it  is  cheaper, 
quicker,  and  better  than  manuscript  duplica- 


STANDARDIZED  OPERATIONS  305 

tion;  if  we  have  3  copies  to  make  it  is  better 
to  choose  the  typewriter  and  provide  carbon 
manifolds  than  to  write  it  out  by  hand.  If  we 
want  only  300  screws  and  it  takes  3  hours  to 
set  up  the  automatic  machine  and  only  3  min- 
utes to  run  out  the  screws,  it  is  better  to  use 
the  automatic.  A  modern  activity,  whether  the 
operation  of  an  industrial  shop,  or  a  railroad, 
or  of  the  turrets  and  guns  of  a  battleship,  is 
part  of  a  gigantic,  automatic  machine;  and  it 
pays  to  plan  in  advance,  not  to  trust  to  the  hap- 
hazard. 

Given  the  head  of  hair  combed  from  child- 
hood, never  matted  with  clay;  the  head  of  hair 
to  which  daily  the  habit  of  neatness,  great 
skill,  and  unrelenting  care  is  applied — and  the 
problem  is  solved.  Given  any  activity  in  which- 
planning  has  been  incorporated  as  a  habit,  and 
apparent  difficulties  fade  away  before  patience 
and  persistence. 

Nevertheless,  the  difficulties  are  very  real 
and  there  is  a  middle  ground  between  the  op- 
timism that  underrates  them  and  the  despair 
that  refuses  to  master  them.  There  are  be- 
tween 8,000  and  16,000  separate  pieces  in  a 
locomotive,  and  each  railroad  in  the  country 
wants  a  different  design.  One  great  railroad 


306  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

used  256  different  styles  of  locomotives,  so 
that  there  is  an  appalling  lack  of  standards; 
but  the  more  reason  for  beginning  at  once. 

Modern  watches  are  marvels  of  intricate  and 
perfect  construction.  Any  child  can  push  a 
stick  in  the  ground  and  by  the  position  and 
length  of  the  shadow  determine  approximately 
the  time.  A  clepsydra  or  water  clock,  an  hour 
glass,  physical  material  leaking  away  at  a  uni- 
form rate,  was  a  decided  advance  at  guessing 
on  the  time  in  the  dark,  or  the  time  for  boiling 
an  egg.  The  early  clocks  with  their  pendulum 
escapements  required  many  months  of  experi- 
mental test  before  length  of  pendulum,  mesh- 
ing of  wheels,  amount  of  weight,  were  adjusted 
to  one  another.  There  are  as  many  different 
kinds  of  watches  and  clocks  as  there  are  loco- 
motives; but  each  is  perfect  with  a  perfection 
so  great  as  to  be  almost  inconceivable.  The 
jewelled  bearings,  the  almost  microscopic  yet 
mathematically  perfectly  shaped  teeth  of  the 
wheels,  the  hair  spring,  the  balance  wheel,  each 
is  perfect  in  itself,  perfectly  related  to  the 
others,  until  the  whole  is  also  perfect.  This 
is  not  all.  Delicate,  automatic  machines  are 
made  which  turn  out  these  perfected  parts  so 
exactly  alike  as  to  be  interchangeable.  Turret 


STANDARDIZED  OPERATIONS  307 

lathes  and  screw  machines,  automatic  machines 
in  general,  were  earliest  adapted  to  clock  and 
watch  making,  and  from  that  extended  to 
larger  and  heavier  parts,  often  beyond  the 
point  of  economy;  for  in  watch  screws  the 
material,  even  if  of  gold,  would  not  amount  to- 
very  much,  the  perfection  of  finish  being  all- 
important,  but  as  the  weight  of  material  grows 
with  the  cube  of  its  linear  measurement,  we 
cannot  afford  to  make  on  automatic  machines 
crank-pins  or  even  knuckle-pins  for  locomo- 
tives, it  being  too  expensive  to  cut  down  the 
solid  bar.  u 

It  would  take  no  more  thought  and  work  to 
standardize  operations  for  building  a  locomo- 
tive than  for  building  a  watch.  The  difference 
is  that  watches  are  turned  out  by  the  hundred 
thousands  and  locomotives  only  by  the  thou- 
sand; but  this  difference  is  not  as  great  as  it 
seems,  for  a  watch  movement  may  average  $5 
in  value  and  a  locomotive  $15,000,  so  that  one 
locomotive  corresponds  to  3,000  watches,  and 
as  we  have  not  hesitated  to  undertake  the  work 
of  designing  each  separate  locomotive  part,  we 
need  not  fear  the  labor  of  standardizing  the 
operation  of  manufacture  for  each  separate 
locomotive  part. 


308          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

Another  instance  of  standardized  operation 
is  the  printing  of  a  book.  The  old  writers  were 
individualists;  there  was  no  standardized 
operation.  Each  made  not  only  the  size  of  the 
letters  to  suit  himself,  but  also  their  forms, 
took  pride  in  not  being  like  other  scribes ;  each 
spelled  the  words  his  own  way,  each  used  his 
stylus  or  brush  as  he  preferred,  preparing  his 
own  ink,  his  own  papyrus  or  parchment.  Now 
we  buy  half  a  dozen  newspapers  a  day  for  a 
cent  each,  we  buy  a  dozen  magazines  a  week 
for  ten  cents  each,  we  buy  a  hundred  books  a 
year  for  a  dollar  or  two  each.  Scarcely  any  two 
books  are  alike;  there  is  far  greater  variation 
than  in  locomotives  or  watches ;  but  each  book 
is  made  up  and  printed  with  standardized 
spelling,  standardized  lines,  standardized  pages 
and  standardized  signatures;  even  the  book  it- 
self approaches  a  standard  in  size.  The  ink  is 
made  to  suit  various  fluctuations  in  the 
weather,  the  paper  is  made  to  suit  the  quality 
of  the  book  in  press.  While  printing  is  as  yet 
standardized  in  a  rudimentary  way  only,  while 
it  affords  a  field  as  large  as  any  manufacturing 
business  in  the  country,  it  has  nevertheless  in 
certain  limited  directions  standardized  opera- 
tion to  an  advanced  extent? 


STANDARDIZED  OPERATIONS  309 

In  the  watch,  in  the  book,  we  have  the  stand- 
ardized operation  as  to  the  manner  in  which 
it  shall  be  carried  out;  but  there  is  another 
element — that  of  individual  skill. 

Two  men  may  both  show  a  model  wall  of 
brick,  yet  one  man  may  have  laid  3,000  bricks 
a  day,  the  other  man  only  300. 

"So  true  it  is  that  one  man  and  one  intellect 
properly  qualified  for  the  particular  undertak- 
ing is  a  host  in  itself  and  of  extraordinary  effi- 
ciency." Thus  wrote  Polybius,  212  B.  C.,  in 
describing  the  work  of  that  great  engineer 
Archimedes,  who,  by  his  individual  genius, 
flung  rocks  from  catapults  at  the  approaching 
besieging  ships,  who  constructed  cranes  that 
let  down  grab  hooks,  lifted  the  ships  out  of  the 
water,  and  turning  them  over,  let  them  fall  to 
destruction. 

Horses  have  trotted  and  trotted  well  for 
many  centuries,  but  it  remained  for  Americans 
to  figure  out  that  the  value  of  a  minute  might 
be  rated  at  $3,000,000,  and  that  to  eliminate 
the  minute,  to  evolve  the  mile-in-two-minute 
horse  from  the  mile-in-three-minute  horse 
would  be  worth  this  amount.  Prizes  were  offered 
to  crack  trotters  for  beating  their  own  record, 
$10,000  for  the  fifth  of  a  second,  and  there  are 


310  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

300  fifths  in  a  single  minute.  It  was  not  only 
the  horse  that  was  developed;  it  was  also  the 
American  stop-watch  spirit,  so  that  our  fire 
fighters,  whose  every  movement  for  men  and 
teams  has  been  standardized,  are  able  to  charge 
across  the  threshold  of  their  firehouse  20  sec- 
onds after  the  gong  has  sounded.  Less  than 
the  fifth  of  a  second  is  said  to  cover  the  advan- 
tage of  a  runner  to  first  base  in  modern  base- 
ball. 

At  an  international  contest  in  Berlin  several 
years  ago  it  took  the  English  team  over  two- 
minutes  and  the  German  team  over  eight  min- 
utes to  make  a  start. 

Now  aeroplanes  have  come;  and  at  the  inter- 
national meet  in  Belmont,  true  to  our  national 
virtues  and  our  national  faults,  we  were  pre- 
pared to  time  the  flights  to  the  hundredth  part 
of  a  second,  but  with  a  year's  warning  we  had 
no  machines  wherewith  to  fly  and  we  lost  to 
the  foreigners  because  we  were  unprepared. 

Probably  the  most  marvelous  and  valuable 
example  of  standardized  operations  anywhere 
in  the  world  is  on  our  American  fleets  in  battle 
practice.  The  art  of  war  has  not  changed  as 
to  its  fundamentals  since  men  first  began  to 
fight  on  land  or  sea.  The  purpose  is  with  a 


STANDARDIZED  OPERATIONS  311 

stronger  force  to  overwhelm  a  weaker  opposing 
fleet,  to  strike  first,  hardest  and  quickest.  It 
was  Goliath's  idea  to  pick  off  the  Israelites  one 
by  one,  and  a  modern  pugilist  could  defeat  a 
hundred  men  if  they  charged  him  singly,  and 
he  could  down  the  first  before  the  second  came 
up.  A  Dreadnaught  makes  all  the  navies  of 
the  world  without  Dreadnaughts  obsolete,  be- 
cause such  a  battleship  with  its  ten  12-inch 
guns,  can  fire  a  broadside  from  all  of  them  at 
once  while  steaming  at  21  knots. 

Such  a  battleship,  steaming  as  fast  as  any 
rivals,  bringing  more  guns  into  action  than  any 
rival,  hitting  an  enemy  at  seven  miles,  could 
destroy  the  whole  of  an  opposing  fleet  one  by 
one,  even  as  the  pugilist  would  take  the  lighter 
weights  one  by  one.  But  the  horse-trotting, 
fire-fighting  American  stop-watch  practice  is 
also  in  the  Navy,  and  it  was  realized  that  if 
these  big  guns  could  be  fired  four  times  as  fast, 
it  would  be  very  nearly  the  same  as  having 
four  times  as  many  guns  or  four  times  as  many 
Dreadnaughts,  and  also  that  if  the  skill  of  aim 
could  be  increased  four-fold,  if  four  shots 
would  reach  the  target  as  compared  to  one  in 
the  older  practice,  one  modern  Arkansas  or 
Wyoming,  with  twelve  12-inch  guns,  firing  four 


312  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

times  as  fast  and  hitting  four  times  as  often, 
will,  for  the  time  being  at  least,  be  sixteen 
times  as  effective.  These  big  guns  are  loaded, 
aimed,  and  fired  twice  in  a  minute.  The  prac- 
tice drill  is  only  half  this  time,  and  this  prac- 
tice drill  is  of  two  kinds.  There  is  the  physical 
act  of  loading  the  heavy  gun,  there  is  the  more 
important  act  of  pointing  it.  Two  opposing 
ships  are  10,000  yards  apart  (about  6  miles) 
steaming  at  18  knots  in  diverging  directions. 
The  rate  of  change  of  range  may  be  750  yards 
a  minute.  If  the  range  is  set  for  every  50 
yards,  it  must  be  redetermined  every  4  seconds. 
This  is  impossible,  but  it  can  be  determined 
every  30  seconds  and  a  salvo  be  fired  every  30 
seconds.  Being  able  to  determine  the  range 
twice  a  minute,  to  fire  twice  a  minute,  the  re- 
maining part  is  drill  in  pointing  or  aiming,  and 
this  is  done  by  means  of  much  practice  with 
models.  To  hit  a  target  60  feet  wide  and  30 
feet  high  at  30,000  feet  with  a  big  gun,  when 
you  can  cover  it  twice  over  by  the  point  of  a 
lead  pencil  at  arm's  length,  is  considerably 
harder  than  to  hit  a  target  1  inch  high  at  83 
feet  with  a  small  gun ;  but  it  is  much  better  and 
much  cheaper  to  fire  1,000  shots  with  the  small 
gun  than  to  fire  the  big  gun  once,  and  when  the 


STANDARDIZED  OPERATIONS  313 

big  gun  is  fired  four  times  in  practice,  after 
training  with  small  apparatus,  it  will  do  better 
than  if  firing  100  real  shots  without  the  model 
practice. 

In  the  battle  practice  I  saw  the  first  12-inch 
range-finding  shot,  from  a  distance  of  14,000 
yards,  go  clean  through  a  30  by  60  target ;  and 
so  accurate  and  secure  was  the  aim  of  all  the 
salvos  that  we  calmly  watched  the  shots  splash 
all  around  the  floating  target  only  400  yards 
away.  The  firing  end  was  not  less  impressive. 
The  team  work  was  so  perfect  that  the  salvos 
from  the  same  ship  were  redirected  one  after 
the  other  almost  with  the  ease  with  which  a 
child  swings  a  garden  hose. 

I  have  also  watched  diminutive  and  juvenile 
Igorot  savages  shoot  dimes  from  a  forked  stick 
at  60  feet  with  bow  and  arrow.  The  Igorots 
show  us  the  beginnings  of  offensive  skill ;  mod- 
ern American  battleship  target  practice  shows 
us  the  highest  speed,  accuracy,  and  distance  yet 
attained,  and  we  may  not  doubt  that  our  pres- 
ent achievement  is  but  a  step  in  man's  ultimate 
achievement. 

The  improvement  in  the  effectiveness  of  the 
different  ships  of  the  Navy  in  the  last  five 
years  is  very  great,  and  is  probably  the  great- 


314  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

est  improvement  both  in  importance  and  mag- 
nitude that  has  ever  been  accomplished.  Think 
of  the  small  degree  to  which  the  steam  turbine 
is  superior  to  the  reciprocating  engine  (a  ques- 
tionable 5  per  cent),  or  how  very  little  faster 
the  best  passenger  trains  are  than  the  slowest 
of  the  same  class  (about  25  per  cent) .  Think 
of  the  enormous  expense  in  time  and  money 
spent  in  developing  either  steam  turbines  or 
high-speed  trains — then  think  of  the  sixteen- 
fold  increased  efficiency  of  our  battleships  as 
compared  to  five  years  ago,  an  increased  effi- 
ciency due  to  the  application  of  the  principles 
of  efficiency — all  of  them — Ideals,  Common 
Sense,  Competent  Counsel,  Discipline,  the  Fair 
Deal,  Reliable  and  Imediate  Records,  Schedules 
(of  10,000  yards),  Despatching  (of  big  shot  at 
the  rate  of  ten  or  twelve  a  minute) ,  Standard- 
ized Conditions,  Standardized  Operation  (se- 
cured by  constant  and  assiduous  team  drill), 
most  minute  Standard-Practice  Instructions 
(as  to  how  fifths  of  seconds  can  be  saved 
in  time)  ;  finally,  a  joyful  and  much  coveted 
Efficiency  Reward,  in  both  honor  and  emol- 
ument, when  the  tremendous  results  have 
been  accomplished.  And  when  this  appears  not 
only  in  the  spectacular  gunnery,  but  also  in  the 


STANDARDIZED  OPERATIONS  315 

more  prosaic  but  continuously  important  opera- 
tions of  firing  coal;  of  coaling  ship  (the  record 
as  to  this  having  increased  from  30  tons  an 
hour  to  360  tons  an  hour  on  some  of  the  ships 
for  the  whole  cruise  around  the  world)  ;  of 
the  maintenance  of  operation  of  machinery  on 
board  ship  without  going  to  Navy  yards — these 
accomplishments  show  that  high  efficiency  re- 
quires neither  great  outlay  nor  protracted 
time,  but  only  the  proper  intelligence,  spirit, 
and  organization.  The  seagoing  form  of  or- 
ganization is  admirably  adapted  to  apply  the 
principles,  since  a  gun  drill,  a  coal  drill,  a  re- 
coaling  drill,  is  but  a  practical  and  modern 
form  of  drill.  The  ideal  is  not  a  mere  dress 
parade,  but  to  hit  accurately,  fast,  and  furi- 
ously, at  the  greatest  distance,  an  enemy's  ship 
overtaken  by  better  management  throughout; 
and  this  ideal  has  been  accomplished,  stop 
watch  in  hand  refining  all  the  conditions  and 
operations,  this  refinement  made  possible  by 
bringing  to  bear  all  the  available  knowledge  in 
the  universe.  This  Navy  work  is  a  great  game, 
not  drudgery;  it  is  pleasurable  excitement  and 
joyously  hard  work. 

Thus  gradually,   from  all   sides — from  tfee 
watch  and  sewing-machine  and  typewriter  fac- 


316  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

tory,  from  the  race-track,  from  the  fire-fighters, 
from  the  manipulation  of  the  big  12-inch  guns, 
from  schedules,  despatching,  standardized  con- 
ditions and  standardized  operation  in  some 
shops — the  methods  of  efficiency  are  spreading. 

Planning  pays;  the  application  of  all  the 
principles  of  efficiency  pays;  but  standardized 
operation  is  the  principle  that  most  appeals  to 
the  individuality  of  the  man,  of  the  worker. 
Ideals  are  passive,  common-sense  is  passive, 
planning  in  all  its  phases  is  passive,  but  stand- 
ardized operation  becomes  an  individual  joy 
with  its  wealth  of  active  manifestation. 

Let  none  hesitate  because  we  cannot  stand- 
ardize each  new  operation.  We  cannot  stand- 
ardize every  errand  boy's  every  trip ;  we  cannot 
standardize  every  naval  battle;  but  we  can  so 
inspire  both  errand  boy  and  admiral  that  each 
will  always  do  his  best,  we  can  give  them  train- 
ing, knowledge,  help,  and  incentive;  and  if  we 
do  this  for  them  and  for  all  other  workers, 
even  though  we  cannot  drill  and  redrill  as  to 
the  performance  of  the  occasional  operation, 
we  can  be  absolutely  sure  that  no  savable  time 
will  be  wasted  nor  effort  lost  in  performing  it. 


XIII 

THE  ELEVENTH  PRINCIPLE:  WRITTEN 

STANDARD-PRACTICE  IN 

STRUCTIONS 


Now  hearken  unto  the  statutes  which  I  teach  you, 
to  do  them,  that  ye  may  live.  Ye  shall  not  add  unto 
the  words,  r either  shall  ye  diminish  aught  from  it. 
— Deuteronomy,  4,  1-2. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  ELEVENTH  PRINCIPLE:  WRITTEN 
STANDARD-PRACTICE  IN- 
STRUCTIONS 

THE  human  race  is  old  and  its  upward 
progress  slow;  how  old,  no  one  knows. 
French,  Italian,  Spanish  speech  are  de- 
scended from  Latin  dialects  already  differen- 
tiated twenty-four  hundred  years  ago,  yet  the 
modern  languages  are  so  much  alike  that  the 
educated  foreigner,  having  learned  to  read  one, 
can  forthwith  read  and  understand  the  other. 
Sanskrit,  Greek,  Latin,  Irish,  German,  Russian, 
although  developed  from  a  common  language, 
are  so  very  far  apart  that  it  may  easily  have 
taken  fifty-thousand  years  for  their  divergence. 
How  far  back  beyond  this  time  were  the  black, 
red,  and  white  races  one,  how  much  further 
back  when  homo  sapiens  branched  off?  Egypt 
is  historically  the  oldest  nation,  yet  the  begin- 
nings of  Egypt  were  on  geologically  the  most 
319 


320  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

recent  of  ground,  the  river  bottom  and  delta  of 
the  Nile.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
years  to  bring  about  the  difference  between 
man  and  an  ancestral  being  probably  as  intelli- 
gent as  a  chimpanzee !  Counting  three  genera- 
tions to  a  century,  the  human  race  has  behind 
it  7,500  generations,  and  astonishingly  little 
advance  per  generation  to  show. 

The  upward  progress  of  man  has  been  doubly 
hindered.  Compared  to  animals,  birds  and, 
above  all,  insects,  his  brain  cells  mature  very 
slowly.  A  dog  two  years  old  knows  far  more 
than  a  child  of  five,  and  a  five-year-old  dog 
usually  has  more  wisdom  than  a  man  of 
twenty-five.  The  silkworm,  the  spider,  the 
firefly,  the  bee,  and  the  ant  develop  marvelous 
skill  in  a  few  weeks.  The  progress  of  insects 
is  therefore  due  partly  to  the  rapid  succession 
of  generations,  a  cause  Darwin  pointed  out, 
and  partly  to  the  rapidity  of  mental  processes 
in  each  short  life.  Man  has  intelligence,  but 
it  works  with  distressing  slowness,  and  each 
generation  has  failed  to  transmit  more  than  a 
very  small  part  of  the  advance  to  its  successor. 

Rapid  progress  can  be  made  in  a  generation. 
The  child  is  born  a  rank  animal,  it  is  a  savage 
until  its  fifth  year,  a  barbarian  more  or  less 


STANDARD-PRACTICE  INSTRUCTIONS        321 

until  maturity,  yet  ripens  and  mellows  into  a 
civilized  being.  When  one  considers  medical 
students  with  their  disreputable  pranks  and 
practices,  one  wonders  where  the  comforting 
and  respectable  family  physicians  come  from! 
It  actually  takes  only  thirty  years  to  pass  from 
animalism  to  semi-divinity,  yet  the  race,  after 
7,500  times  33  years,  is  still  far  below  this 
standard.  Why  has  progress  been  so  exceed- 
ingly slow?  There  have  been  high  ideals  in  the 
past ;  there  have  been  leaders  of  great  common- 
sense,  from  the  seven  wise  men  of  Greece  to 
Franklin;  there  have  been  competent  counsel- 
lors, the  sages,  seers  and  prophets,  the  sibyls 
and  saints  of  all  ages ;  there  has  been  discipline, 
even  severe,  cruel,  exterminating;  there  has. 
been  the  fair  deal  taught  by  the  Buddha  and 
by  the  Christ,  by  the  St.  Vincent  de  Pauls,  by 
the  Elizabeth  Frys,  and  by  the  Florence  Night- 
ingales; there  have  been  records  graven  in 
stone;  there  have  been  plans,  schedules  and 
despatching;  conditions  and  operations  here 
and  there  down  through  the  ages  have  been 
standardized — but  all  this  has  been  spasmodic; 
little,  so  little  has  endured!  There  was  no 
ratchet,  the  tide  rose  and  fell,  the  children 
repeated  the  mistakes  of  their  fathers;  those 


322  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

full  of  years  and  wisdom  became  dust,  and  took 
their  knowledge  with  them.  We  failed  to  hold 
as  a  genus  or  as  a  race  what  each  individual 
had  learned.  Within  the  last  five-thousand 
years  there  has  been  progress.  The  art  of 
drawing,  of  carving  imperishably,  has  trans- 
mitted a  little  of  what  our  ancestors  achieved 
and  knew.  More  often,  inspired  with  vanity, 
these  great  ones  commemorated  their  own  mis- 
deeds. Knowledge  was  the  carefully  guarded 
secret  of  the  priestly  caste,  but  in  the  finally 
published  sacred  books,  our  own  and  other 
Bibles,  we  do  find  moral  and  practical  wisdom 
written  and  transmitted.  Printing,  less  than 
five-hundred  years  old,  has  been  called  the  art 
preservative  of  all  arts.  That,  of  course,  de- 
pends. Most  of  our  daily  papers  and  most  of 
our  books  embody  and  preserve  nothing  of  per- 
manent value ;  they  are  merely  an  extension  of 
the  babel  of  Bander  log,  they  are  merely 
printed  simian  chatterings,  but  nevertheless 
printing  has  given  us  the  possibility  of  creating 
an  eleventh  edition  of  the  Encyclopedia  Britan- 
nica. 

Pumpelly  tells  a  story  of  a  Japanese  student 
of  metallurgy,  who  about  1870  possessed  an 
English  work  on  blast  furnaces,  an  English- 


STANDARD-PRACTICE  INSTRUCTIONS        323 

Dutch  dictionary,  and  a  Dutch-Japanese  dic- 
tionary, and  with  these  as  guides  he  construct- 
ed and  operated  a  fairly  successful  blast  fur- 
nace for  smelting  iron  ore.  This  shows  what 
can  be  done  by  Standard  Permanent  Written 
Instructions. 

We  have  no  accurate  description  of  the 
engines  of  destruction  invented  by  Archi- 
medes for  the  defense  of  Syracuse  against  the 
Romans.  They  must  have  been  interesting 
since  they  lifted  whole  ships  and  dropped  them 
endwise  into  the  sea  or  onto  the  rocks. 

It  would  seem  as  if  maps  and  charts  would 
be  an  easy  task.  A  stranger  on  an  unknown 
coast,  in  an  unknown  land,  an  unknown  city, 
knows  more  about  it  if  he  has  a  good  chart 
or  map  than  the  native. 

I  have  insisted  that  a  map  of  Boston  shall 
be  properly  oriented  and  displayed  in  our  Bos- 
ton office,  for,  excepting  professional  criminals 
who  have  to  be  versed  in  devious  paths  and 
ways,  there  is  probably  no  modern  Boston 
native  who  could  readily  and  accurately  lay  a 
rational  course  from  point  to  point  in  that  city. 
Roaming  and  navigating  savages  who  really 
need  maps  are  very  skilful  in  drawing  them. 
Sir  Edward  Parry  discovered  Hecla  Strait 


324  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

from  a  map  drawn  off-hand  for  him  by  an 
Eskimo  woman ;  but  the  higher  the  civilization 
of  the  map-maker,  the  more  in  the  past  he  sub- 
stituted imagination  and  arts  for  facts.  There 
are  Egyptian  maps  dating  from  1400  B.  C.,  but 
in  spite  of  this  long  history  it  has  been  aston- 
ishingly difficult  to  make  progress  in  charts 
until  very  recent  times.  Errors  are  perpetu- 
ated, truth  is  forgotten,  advance  is  slow.  As 
late  as  1900,  charts  of  the  Alaskan  coast  issued 
by  the  United  States  were  said  to  be  thirty 
miles  wrong,  and  nearly  all  commercial  map 
makers  still  represent  mountain  chains  as  cater- 
pillars, and  the  fringe  of  the  shore  is  adorned 
with  a  blue  wavy  frill.  As  for  railroad  maps, 
the  less  said  the  better. 

The  early  land-survey  maps  of  our  western 
plains  were  concocted  in  central  offices,  not  on 
the  ground;  therefore  on  the  Colorado  and 
Nebraska  line  they  do  not  tie  in  by  four  miles 
and  a  half  east  and  west.  The  Government 
paid  the  full  price  for  accurate  surveys,  but 
with  a  man  in  charge  of  a  keg  of  whiskey  gal- 
loping ahead  on  a  mule,  with  several  investi- 
gating Indians  in  war  paint  galloping  behind, 
burnt  matches  stuck  in  the  ground  did  duty 
as  the  required  and  sworn  to  charred  stakes. 


STANDARD-PRACTICE  INSTRUCTIONS        325 

The  maps  made  from  the  surveys  were  not 
standard  permanent  instructions  of  much 
value.  Modern  geodetic  and  geological-survey 
charts,  modern  coast-survey  charts,  are  ad- 
mirable and  useful  beyond  criticism ;  but  it  has 
taken  a  long  while  to  reach  this  perfection. 

On  one  occasion  I  was  invited  to  invest  in 
a  gold  placer  in  Wyoming  to  be  washed  out  by 
hydraulicking.  The  geological-survey  contour 
chart  showed  conclusively  that  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  secure  sufficient  water  with  suffi- 
cient head  to  wash  the  gravel.  What  has  been 
done  with  the  prospect  since  dredges  have  been 
put  into  successful  operation  I  do  not  know. 
On  another  occasion  I  reported  adversely  on 
an  Alaskan  ditch  proposition.  The  watershed 
tributary  to  the  ditch  was  easily  integrated 
from  the  Government  contour  chart,  the  yearly 
precipitation  was  also  known.  The  promoters 
claimed  5,000  miner's  inches ;  I  could  not  figure 
more  than  500;  investors  nevertheless  went 
ahead.  The  next  year  they  reported  that  the 
season  had  been  one  of  unusual  drought,  and 
the  year  after  that  the  company  was  in  the 
hands  of  a  receiver. 

American  law  is  in  most  States  the  out- 
growth of  English  common  law,  and  in  our 


326          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

Spanish  and  French  States,  of  Roman  law. 
The  common  law  in  England  is  the  outcome  of 
custom  finally  passed  on  by  the  courts  or  de- 
fined by  acts  of  Parliament.  In  many  of  our 
State  codes  we  have  attempted  to  reduce  the 
principles  to  statutes  governing  particular 
cases.  This  is  often  helpful  and  often  not. 
Moses  laid  down  principles:  Thou  shalt  not 
kill;  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother — but 
the  enforcement  became  specific.  Codes  sup- 
plemented principles. 

"If  any  man  smite  his  neighbor  mortally, 
then  the  elders  of  his  city  shall  deliver  him 
into  the  hand  of  the  avenger  of  blood  that  he 
may  die." 

"Thine  eye  shall  not  pity,  life  for  life,  eye 
for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  hand  for  hand,  foot 
for  foot." 

"If  a  man  have  a  stubborn  and  rebellious 
son  all  the  men  of  his  city  shall  stone  him  with 
stones  that  he  die." 

It  was  from  snap  decisions  in  specific  cases 
that  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  grew 
up,  laws  that  changed  not. 

Lord  Wolseley  credits  Napoleon  with  the 
greatest  intellect  the  human  race  has  ever  pro- 
duced. Bonaparte,  First  Consul,  personally 


STANDARD-PRACTICE  INSTRUCTIONS        327 

worked  over  the  wording  of  the  Civil  Code.  He 
wanted  its  provisions  so  clear  that  even  the 
most  ignorant  peasant  could  understand.  As 
French  is  an  admirably  definite  and  clear  lan- 
guage, as  the  French  have  a  passion  for  logic, 
as  the  greatest  legal  minds  of  France  aided 
and  were  aided  by  Bonaparte  in  evolving  this 
code,  it  furnishes  an  admirable  example  of 
Permanent  Written  Standard-Practice  Instruc- 
tions. It  was,  moreover,  only  one  of  seven 
great  organizing  acts  which  he  made  into  spe- 
cific standard-practice  instructions,  these  in- 
structions having  persisted  almost  unchanged 
to  the  present  time. 

The  standardizing  operations,  the  ratchet 
action,  is  of  very  great  importance.  A  python 
will  swallow  a  deer,  a  garter  snake  will  swal- 
low a  large  frog.  The  snake's  teeth  are  set 
slanting  backward.  One  jaw  moves  forward 
over  the  flesh,  takes  hold  and  draws  until  the 
other  jaw  can  slip  forward  and  sink  the 
curved  teeth  in.  In  this  way  the  large  body  is 
drawn  into  and  forced  through  the  small  gullet. 
The  more  difficult  the  operation  the  less  is 
there  any  slip  back.  It  is  easier  to  draw  a  fish 
hook  through  a  wound  than  out  of  it.  In  most 
human  affairs  efficiency  is  in  the  end  gained  by 


328  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

going  forward  and  through  rather  than  by 
struggling  forever  on  the  near  side. 

An  American  weakness  is  to  be  discouraged 
by  difficulties  and  to  back-water  instead  of 
overcoming  troubles  and  going  forward.  All 
the  world  knows  that  compound  steam-engines 
use  less  coal  and  water  than  simple  engines. 
The  compound  principle  was  successfully  ap- 
plied in  France  and  Germany  to  locomotives. 
The  steam  pressures  were  naturally  much 
higher.  American  railroads  rushed  into  com- 
pounds with  inadequate  preparation,  knowl- 
edge, or  designs.  Difficulties  of  all  kinds  de- 
veloped, due  partly  to  the  high  pressures,  partly 
to  the  added  dependent  and  increasingly  ineffi- 
cient sequences.  A  case  dwells  in  memory  in 
which  it  took  80  hours  to  renew  an  interme- 
diate packing.  Compounds  as  tried  proved  ex- 
pensive and  troublesome  both  to  operate  and  to 
repair.  Instead  of  being  perfected  as  in  France 
and  in  Germany,  in  order  to  gain  the  advan- 
tages of  the  principle,  they  have  been  aban- 
doned by  American  roads  almost  without  ex- 
ception. Temporary  expediency  governs — not 
ideals. 

The  marvelous  results  due  to  standardization 
of  gunnery  practice  in  the  American  fleet  have 


STANDARD-PRACTICE  INSTRUCTIONS        329 

already  been  referred  to.  These  results  were 
achieved  by  the  ratchet  process,  by  holding 
onto  every  gain  and  by  never  allowing  any  slip 
back,  these  results  being  secured  by  a  volumin- 
ous book  of  instructions  and  suggestions.  In 
this  book  best  ways  as  ascertained  to  date  are 
specifically  prescribed,  by  written,  permanent 
standard-practice  instructions,  but  these  in- 
structions are  subject  to  a  bombardment  of 
suggestions  and  all  these  suggestions,  however 
foolish,  are  tabulated,  printed,  and  confiden- 
tially published. 

The  grains  of  wheat  are  winnowed  from  the 
chaff,  common  sense  finds  its  own  reward  in 
approval,  and  the  makers  of  foolish  sugges- 
tions are  ridiculed  and  shamed  by  their  own 
comrades.  Those  in  charge  of  these  instruc- 
tions, of  the  analysis  of  practice  and  results, 
waste  no  time  in  finding  out  what  European 
rivals  are  doing.  They  know  that  the  way  to 
discover  the  North  Pole  is  to  go  there  as  fast 
as  possible,  not  to  waste  time  and  money 
watching  the  preparations  of  others;  they 
know  that  the  way  to  shoot  quick  and  straight 
and  far  in  a  heavy  sea  is  to  attain  high  speed 
and  shatter  targets  at  long  ranges,  rather  than 
to  spy  on  what  the  other  fellow  is  about. 


330          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

The  feeling  about  this  naval  practice  is  akin 
in  spirit  to  the  attitude  of  an  American  grain 
exporter  who  showed  a  Hungarian  investigator 
our  whole  elevator  and  grain  shipment  installa- 
tions, from  the  wheat  fields  of  Dakota  to  At- 
lantic steamers.  He  was  asked,  "Why  do  you 
show  foreigners,  future  competitors  and  rivals, 
our  methods?"  "Because  they  can't  understand 
half  they  see,  they  can't  remember  half  they 
understand,  and  by  the  time  they  have  copied 
all  we  have,  it  will  be  obsolete  with  us  and  we 
shall  be  ten  years  ahead."  This  applies,  how- 
ever, equally  to  our  own  backwardness  com- 
pared to  foreigners  in  so  many  other  directions. 
The  way  to  forge  ahead  is  to  get  busy,  not  to 
copy. 

It  is  not  only  in  its  charts,  in  its  naval  gun- 
nery, in  its  agricultural  department,  that  the 
United  States  Government  has  established  per- 
manent written  instructions. 

The  specifications  of  the  purchasing  depart- 
ment of  the  navy  are  at  once  the  most  com- 
plete, the  most  modern,  and  the  best  I  have  ever 
seen.  That  the  plans  were  evolved  and  per- 
fected by  graduates  of  Annapolis  speaks  highly 
for  the  practical  value  of  the  general  education 
there  imparted. 


STANDARD-PRACTICE  INSTRUCTIONS        331 

There  are  many  hundred  different  specifica- 
tions covering  everything  that  the  navy  regu- 
larly uses;  the  specifications  for  eggs  covered 
several  pages;  the  specifications  for  potatoes 
are  as  follows: 

Potatoes,  Irish  (East  Coast)  in  sacks  or  barrels. — 
To  be  selected  stock  of  standard  market  sorts,  sound, 
fresh,  free  from  scab  and  mechanical  injuries.  One 
price  only  shall  be  quoted  by  bidders  for  both  old  and 
new  potatoes,  either  of  which  may  be  delivered  at  the 
option  of  the  contractor.  Potatoes  shall  measure  not 
less  than  2  inches  in  smallest  diameter. 

To  be  delivered  in  either  sacks  or  barrels,  according 
to  the  ordinary  commercial  usage  of  the  locality  in 
which  delivery  is  made.  Each  barrel  or  bag  to  be 
marked  with  the  net  weight. 

Copies  of  the  above  specifications  can  be  obtained 
upon  application  to  the  various  Navy  pay  offices  or  to 
the  Bureau  of  Supplies  and  Accounts,  Navy  Depart- 
ment, Washington,  D.  C. 

When  advances  are  not  only  definitely  re- 
corded but  when  the  best  practice  is  carefully 
and  systematically  reduced  to  writing,  progress 
made  is  held  and  built  upon  in  an  industrial 
plant  or  any  other  undertaking.  Every  shop, 
every  institution,  has  its  great  body  of  common- 
law  practices  that  have  gradually  crept  in,  com- 
mon law  variously  understood  and  variously  in- 
terpreted by  those  most  affected.  Often  the 
traditions  of  the  past  are  treasured  up  in  the 
brain  of  some  old  employee,  who  transmits 


332  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

them,  much  as  the  memories  of  old  bards  were 
formerly  the  only  available  history. 

We  have  known  foremen  to  refuse  deliber- 
ately to  tell  a  new  official  how  certain  work  was 
done.  The  defiant  stand  assumed  was  that  this 
was  a  personal  secret.  The  history  of  brass 
castings  is  filled  with  these  secrets  of  composi- 
tions. An  English  tool  forger  pretended  he 
could  smell  good  steel  and  he  imposed  the  same 
conviction  on  his  employers.  Whenever,  in  any 
plant,  Bonaparte's  most  lasting  work  is  under- 
taken— namely,  written  codification  of  current 
practices — it  is  astonishing  how  much  is  found 
that  is  contradictory,  how  much  is  vague  and 
indefinite,  how  much  is  involved  and  compli- 
cated that  might  be  direct  and  simple,  how 
much  is  wholly  lacking. 

Each  one  of  the  ten  preceding  efficiency  prin- 
ciples can  and  should  be  reduced  to  written, 
permanent  standard-practice  instructions  so 
that  each  may  understand  the  whole  and  also 
his  own  relation  to  it.  In  some  plants  the  only 
rules  obtainable  or  visible  are  certain  subsi- 
diary conduct  rules,  offensively  expressed  and 
ending  with  the  threat  of  discharge. 

I  remember  a  wily  superintendent  who,  when 
asked  by  a  manager  to  post  some  additional 


STANDARD-PRACTICE  INSTRUCTIONS        333 

offensive  rule,  modestly  suggested  it  would 
have  more  force  if  signed  by  the  manager  him- 
self. The  latter  fell  into  the  trap  and  posted  the 
rule,  which  was  soon  obliterated  by  abusive  and 
scurrilous  amendments,  comments,  and  epi- 
thets. The  superintendent  himself  did  not  lose 
prestige.  The  ideals  of  a  plan  or  undertaking 
can  be  expressed  in  a  few  words.  One  of  the 
mottoes  of  American  naval  practice  is:  "Ef- 
ficiency and  Economy."  This  is  amplified  into 
special  rules  governing  all  kinds  of  activities. 
I  have  before  me  the  following : 

NAVY  DEPARTMENT 

Washington,  April  22nd,  1911. 

Attention  is  invited  to  General  Order  No.  36  of  August 
20,  1909. 

G.  v.  L.  MEYER, 
Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

The  effort  to  save  coal  shall  not  be  allowed  to  dimin- 
ish the  efficiency  of  the  ship  or  to  affect  adversely  the 
health  or  comfort  of  the  personnel.  It  is  strictly  for- 
bidden to  save  coal  by  curtailing  the  use  of  the  turrets 
or  steamers  or  by  unduly  reducing  light,  ventilation, 
or  the  supply  of  fresh  water. 

It  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  rule  is  not  one  of 
spur  toward  higher  effort,  but  to  hold  back  the 
over-zealous;  it  is  not  one  to  stimulate  the  in- 
efficiency of  depression,  but  to  restrain  the  over- 
efficiency  of  joyous  exaggeration.  It  is  not  a 
rule  "that  enforces  a  high-speed  process  in 


334          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

which  none  but  the  strong  survive,"  but  it  is  a 
rule  protecting  the  interests  of  all. 

Discipline  and  the  fair  deal  do  not  require 
voluminous  initial  instructions,  although  both 
discipline  and  the  fair  deal  should  curtail  au- 
tomatism. 

Standard-Practice  Instructions  are  the  per- 
manent laws  and  practices  of  a  plant.  What 
these  laws,  practices  and  customs  are  should 
first  be  carefully  ascertained  and  be  reduced 
to  writing  by  a  competent  and  high-class  inves- 
tigator, and  it  will  be  all  the  better  if  he  has 
had  legal  training.  It  will  take  considerable 
work  to  find  out  what  the  practices  are,  as  dif- 
ferent officials  from  president  down  may  have 
different  opinions  and  theories  and  also  the 
practice  may  vary  from  month  to  month.  It 
is  quite  usual  to  find  the  actual  practice  quite 
different  from  what  the  general  manager  or 
president  supposes  it  is.  Men  do  what  they  can, 
not  what  they  have  been  told.  The  purpose  is 
to  find  out  what  current  practice  is,  not  what  it 
is  supposed  to  be. 

The  next  step  in  the  work  is  to  harmonize 
the  discrepancies,  to  cut  out  what  is  useless  or 
harmful,  and  to  supplement  the  resultant  body 
by  needed  additions. 


STANDARD-PRACTICE  INSTRUCTIONS        335 

When  this  constructive  work  has  been  per- 
formed there  will  be  a  preliminary  code.  In 
actual  practice  it  will  be  found  that  it  is  still 
defective,  incomplete  or  contradictory.  It  is  to 
be  made  workable  not  by  throwing  it  to  the 
winds  and  reverting  to  the  previous  state  of 
semi-anarchy  every  time  a  difficulty  arrives, 
but  by  carefully  considered  amendments.  The 
code  being  made  up  of  a  number  of  different 
statements  and  enactments  can  be  amended  by 
sending  out  notice  of  withdrawal  of  any  enact- 
ment, at  the  same  time  issuing  the  amended 
enactment,  the  substitution  being  effected  as  in 
the  illustration  that  follows : — 

On  and  after  receipt,  substitute  Rule  5a,  dated  June 
1,  1911,  for  Rule  5,  dated  September  28,  1909.  Read 
carefully  the  new  rule,  note  the  changes  made  and 
send  signed  receipts  to  head  office. 

The  maintenance  of  the  code  is  the  duty  of 
a  qualified,  interested  minor  official  to  whom  all 
suggestions  should  be  referred.  The  code  itself 
is  not  his  creation  but  the  outgrowth  of  the 
plant's  operating  needs.  The  code  goes  out  over 
the  signed  signature  of  the  highest  available 
official.  There  may  be  supplementary  signa- 
tures of  the  department  officials.  For  example, 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

rules  for  the  installation  and  maintenance  of 
belting  should  be  drawn  up  by  the  official  in 
charge  of  maintenance,  should  be  collated  and 
put  in  standard  form  by  the  codifier,  should  be 
promulgated  over  the  signatures  of  the  super- 
intendent, of  department  head,  even  of  belt 
foreman  as  well  as  of  general  manager  or  presi- 
dent. The  belt  foreman's  business,  if  he  does 
not  like  the  rules,  is  not  to  sign  them  until  he 
has  fought  the  matter  out,  but  it  is  not  his  busi- 
ness to  disregard  them.  The  natural  inclination 
is  to  prefer  individual  anarchy,  but  anarchy 
never  leads  anywhere. 

In  time  quite  a  body  of  standard-practice  in- 
structions will  grow  up,  most  of  them  suggested 
and  evolved  by  the  employees.  Records  will  re- 
quire many  pages  of  specific  instructions,  if  the 
records  are  to  be  reliable,  immediate  and  ade- 
quate. Standardized  conditions  also  ultimately 
require  a  large  volume,  but  the  largest  volume 
of  all  is  the  book  covering  standardized  opera- 
tions. It  is  pathetically  and  ignorantly  sup- 
posed that  standard  instructions  destroy  a 
man's  initiative  and  make  of  him  an  automaton. 
Compared  to  the  drop  of  the  sparrow  through 
the  air,  or  the  scamper  of  the  squirrel  down  a 


STANDARD-PRACTICE  INSTRUCTIONS       337 

tree,  a  staircase  does  indeed  limit  the  initiative 
of  a  man  going  from  the  roof  to  the  ground. 
He  who  prefers  it  may  let  himself  down  from 
the  window  by  a  rope.  I  prefer  the  limitation, 
common-sense,  safety  and  ease  of  the  staircase. 
A  ferryboat  limits  the  initiative  of  a  commuter 
entering  the  city  and  a  tunnel  even  more  limits 
this  initiative.  Those  who  prefer  it  are  wel- 
come to  the  right  to  swim  the  Hudson  or  to  use 
a  small  skiff  of  their  own.  The  flanges  of  the 
locomotive  and  car  wheels  confine  the  train  to 
the  steel  rails,  and  this  is  a  great  curtailment 
of  initiative  compared  to  the  free  path  of  the 
buffalo  or  of  the  bull-whacker  across  the  plains. 

The  fact  is  that  the  limitation  of  initiative 
professedly  so  dreaded  is  wholly  imaginary.  To 
follow  the  better  and  easier  way  is  to  lessen 
effort  for  the  same  result,  to  leave  more  oppor- 
tunity for  higher  initiative  to  invent  or  evolve 
still  better  ways. 

The  aviator  flying  72  miles  an  hour  is  the 
greatest  initiator  in  the  world  to-day,  yet  to  a 
degree  never  before  experienced  he  is  limited 
by  his  engine,  and  nothing  would  be  so  welcome 
as  standard-practice  instructions  that  would 
help  keep  his  engine  going,  as  automatic  stabil- 


338  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

ity  for  his  plane,  gladly  relinquishing  his  own 
initiative  in  favor  of  tested  standard  practice 
in  both  these  respects. 

Any  undertaking  run  without  written  stand- 
ard-practice instructions  is  incapable  of  pro- 
gressive advance,  but  by  means  of  written 
instructions  advances  far  more  rapid  than  those 
attained  by  insects  and  birds  are  possible. 
Wireless  telegraphy  is  but  suggested,  experi- 
ments described,  and  inside  of  ten  years  our 
coast  is  fringed  with  the  masts  of  rival  systems 
and  messages  are  transmitted  across  the  ocean ! 
The  first  flights  of  aeroplanes  were  but  eight 
years  ago,  and  to-day  they  are  carrying  twelve 
passengers  or  flying  72  miles  an  hour.  Five 
years  of  planned,  attained,  and  recorded  prog- 
ress will  accomplish  more  than  twenty  years  of 
rule  of  thumb  tucked  away  under  the  hats  of 
shifting  employees. 


XIV 

THE  TWELFTH  PRINCIPLE :  EFFICIENCY 
REWARD 


"When  I  heard,"  said  the  Badger,  "that  the  money 
you  needed  was  to  be  offered  to  a  temple  for  your 
soul,  I  went  to  the  island  of  Sado,  and  gathering  the 
sand  and  earth  which  had  been  cast  away  as  worth- 
less by  the  miners,  fused  it  afresh  in  the  fire;  at  this 
work  I  spent  months  and  days,  and  here  it  is  for 
you." — Tales  of  Old  Japan. 

All  that  the  doctrine  of  equal  rights  can  hope  to 
accomplish  is  that  the  man  who  is  most  deserving  shall 
be  placed  where  he  should  be.  Until  the  last  page  of 
the  last  volume  is  written  in  the  Book  of  Years, 
Merit  alone  will  rule  the  earth. — HERBERT  KAUFMANN. 

There  is  nothing  men  will  not  attempt  when  great 
enterprises  hold  out  the  promise  of  great  rewards. — 
LiVY. 

Withhold  not  good  from  them  to  whom  it  is  due, 
when  it  is  in  the  power  of  thine  hand  to  do  it. — 
Proverbs,  3,  27. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  TWELFTH  PRINCIPLE :  EFFICIENCY 
REWARD 

PUZZLES :— The  themes  of  fairy  tales !   To 
sort  out  the  tangled  skeins  of  silk,  to 
separate    the   colored   grains    of    sand! 
Puzzles: — to  decipher  the  hieroglyphs  and  the 
cuneiforms,  to  tax  all  the  powers  of  investiga- 
tion, of  theories,  of  analysis,  of  philosophy,  of 
interpretation!    Solutions,  generalizations,  are 
fascinating. 

Books,  encyclopedias  of  50,000,000  words, 
250,000  words  in  the  English  language,  outside 
of  dictionaries  scarcely  10,000  different — but 
only  26  letters  of  the  alphabet;  these  again  re- 
duced to  three  classes,  labials,  dentals,  palatals, 
each  shifting  from  dialect  to  dialect  as  in  pater, 
vater,  father,  all  the  languages  of  the  world 
synthesized  back  to  mama,  dada,  gaga,  further 
back  even  to  the  unconscious  ejaculations  of 
the  newly-born  child! 

341 


342  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

Millions  and  millions  of  different  substances 
in  the  world!  There  are  countless  different 
kinds  of  oil  alone,  all  consisting  of  carbon, 
hydrogen  and  oxygen.  Vary  the  proportions  of 
the  elements,  and  the  compounds  shift  into 
alcohols,  sugars,  starches,  dextrines,  acids — 
into  essences,  aromas,  into  dyes,  drugs,  poisons ! 
All  the  substances  in  the  universe  are  but  com- 
binations of  less  than  seventy  elements,  and  it 
is  the  dream,  the  expectation  of  modern  chem- 
istry to  find  whether  these,  if  not  but  one,  are 
not  at  most  three  or  four. 

In  the  last  analysis,  it  is  the  marvelous  sim- 
plicity of  it  all  that  enchants,  almost  stuns. 
Gravitation  holds  solar  systems  in  their  paths, 
carves  the  face  of  the  land,  calms  the  ocean's 
unrest !  Crystallization  gave  us  glacial  epochs, 
life  gives  us  biology,  zoology,  history,  philoso- 
phy. Compared  to  life,  physical,  psychical, 
mental,  all  else  seems  simple;  yet  how  few  the 
instincts  to  perpetuate  and  develop  life!  The 
instinct  for  immediate  life,  the  instinct  for 
eternal  life,  the  preservation  of  the  individual 
and  the  race — yet  both  these  instincts  are  main- 
tained and  stimulated  by  one  single  principle, 
the  last  of  the  twelve,  the  principle  of  "EFFI- 
CIENCY REWARD." 


EFFICIENCY  REWARD  343 

For  years  there  has  been  the  unanswered 
question:  "What  is  the  difference  between  the 
dead  and  the  living,  between  the  animate  and 
the  inanimate?"  Whatever  responds  to  an 
efficiency  reward  is  alive ;  what  cannot  respond, 
is  inanimate.  There  is  a  difference  between  the 
drop  of  water  in  obedience  to  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation, descending  from  the  mountain  top  to 
the  sea,  and  the  pine  tree  growing  tall  and  slim 
that  its  needles  may  reach  the  light  and  live. 

Darwin  showed  that  life  was  preserved  and 
developed  by  the  survival  of  the  efficient,  by 
natural  selection — that  individual  variation 
due  to  the  survival  of  the  efficient  was  trans- 
mitted by  sexual  selection.  Nature  is  accused 
of  caring  nothing  for  the  individual,  of  caring 
much  for  the  race,  yet  she  moulds  impartially 
all  individuals  and  all  races  by  offering  and 
paying  efficiency  rewards.  There  is  for  every 
individual,  for  every  race,  destruction,  hell-fire 
lurking  everywhere,  but  it  is  the  efficiency  re- 
ward that  tempts  us  far  from  the  danger  zone. 
Take  away  the  stimulus  of  efficiency  reward — 
individual  life  and  race  life  would  vanish  from 
the  earth! 

We  can  smile  at  those  who  in  their  ignorance 
try  to  nullify  the  principles  of  efficiency  re- 


344  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

ward,  to  banish  it  from  human  affairs.  Yet 
man,  because  he  perversely  went  backward 
into  darkness  rather  than  forward  into  light — 
man  who  is  what  he  is  because  of  high  reward 
for  individual  efficiency — forgot  the  principle 
that  had  made  him,  forgot  that  it  was  eternal 
and  that  ever  greater  rewards  were  still  ahead, 
and  tried  to  hold  exclusively  what  he  had  and 
to  enhance  its  value  by  depriving  others  of 
what  had  been  given  him.  The  priests  of  all 
ages,  those  to  whom  it  had  been  given  to  read 
some  pages  of  nature's  open  book,  immediately 
made  mysteries  of  this  knowledge,  tried  to  put 
the  book  under  lock  and  key.  Dynasties  which 
had  reached  their  kingship  through  individual 
efficiency — the  Carolingians,  the  descendants  of 
the  pawnbroking  Burggrave  of  Nuremberg,  the 
Tudors,  the  Bourbons,  immediately  substituted 
for  the  principle  of  efficiency  the  artificial 
principle  of  the  Divine  Right  of  Kings,  of  king- 
ship by  the  Grace  of  God.  Men  who,  like  David 
and  Solomon,  ought  to  have  known  that  there 
was  supreme  joy  in  winning  the  love  of  one 
woman,  whether  Bathsheba  or  the  Queen  of 
Sheba,  immediately  laid  in  (by  the  mercenary 
path,  not  by  means  of  emotional  efficiency) 
whole  harems  of  useless  atrophying  women, 


EFFICIENCY  REWARD  345 

David's  chief  pleasure  apparently  being  to  shut 
them  up  in  remote  and  distressful  seclusion  for 
the  mean  pleasure  of  watching  their  lives  waste 
and  of  depriving  other  men  of  wives  (see  II 
Samuel,  20:3).  All  nature  shows  that  inno- 
vating efficiency  is  the  direct  effect  of  reward, 
but  the  history  of  human  institutions  shows 
that  these  are  chiefly  devised  by  the  selfish  few 
to  appropriate  rewards  without  efficiency,  yet 
coating  the  pill  by  holding  out  the  lure  of  a  re- 
mote and  hypothetical  reward  for  efficiency  to 
those  who  bow  the  knee  in  service,  to  the  de- 
luded many. 

Thus  is  offered  by  the  priests  the  promise  of 
heaven  to  those  who  yield  to  the  demands  of 
the  church,  by  generals  the  promise  of  Para- 
dise with  houris  galore  to  those  who  die  in 
battle,  by  kings  the  promise  of  occasional 
largesse  and  festivities  to  those  who  pay  taxes 
and  otherwise  serve,  by  guilds  commercial  suc- 
cess to  members,  by  unions  fixed  wages  for  in- 
adequate work  to  those  who  join  them. 
V^  The  early  settlers  in  America  had  fled  from 
1  caste.  They  had  left  it  behind  them.  The  effi- 
cient came  to  the  new  land  of  hardship  and 
promise,  and  the  efficient  earned  their  indi- 
vidual rewards.  When  they  set  up  their  gov- 


346  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

ernment,  they  made  no  provision  for  the  Stat? 
church,  they  abolished  all  titles  and  hereditary 
offices,  they  provided  for  no  standing  army, 
there  were  no  interstate  barriers  to  trade  an<J 
free  movement,  and  there  were  no  guilds.  The 
apprentice  became  journeyman,  the  journey- 
man became  master,  the  master  became  head 
of  a  plant.  There  were  so  many  opportunities 
that  the  caste  principle  of  fixed  day's  wage 
without  reference  to  performance  was  over- 
looked. The  master  with  his  few  workmen 
under  him  could  personally  supervise  and  pro- 
mote or  discharge.  Yet  the  iniquity  of  the 
fixed  rate  per  hour  was  clearly  indicated  1,900 
years  ago,  in  the  parable  of  the  laborers  in  the 
vineyard.  A  householder  went  out  early  in  the 
morning  to  hire  laborers,  and  when  he  had 
agreed  with  the  laborers  for  a  penny  a  day  he 
sent  them  into  his  vineyard;  and  he  went  out 
at  the  third  hour,  and  again  at  the  sixth,  the 
ninth,  and  the  eleventh  hour  and  saw  others 
standing  in  the  market  place  idle,  and  to  them 
he  said,  "Go  ye  also  into  the  vineyard  and  what- 
soever is  right  I  will  give  you."  This  promise 
of  receiving  what  was  right — pay  on  the  basis 
of  performance,  not  on  the  basis  of  time — 
stimulated  the  workers,  and  even  those  last  en- 


EFFICIENCY  REWARD  347 

gaged  did  as  much  work  before  stopping  as 
those  who  had  been  making  a  slow  pace 
through  the  twelve-hour-long  scorching  and 
burdensome 


So  when  even  was  come,  the  lord  of  the  vineyard 
saith  unto  his  steward,  Call  the  labourers  and  give 
them  their  hire.  .  .  .  And  when  they  came  tha,t 
were  hired  about  the  eleventh  hour,  they  received  everV 
man  a  penny.  But  when  the  first  came,  they  supposed 
that  they  should  have  received  more;  .  .  .  and  they  mur-\ 
mured  against  the  goodman  of  the  house.  .  .  .  But 
he  answered  one  of  them,  and  said,  Friend,  I  do  thee 
no  wrong:  didst  not  thou  agree  with  me  for  a  penny? 
.  .  .  Is  thine  eye  evil  because  I  am  good? 

f  The  day-  wage  system,  contrary  as  it  is  bojth 
to  the  underlying  principle  of  efficiency  reward 
and  also  to  all  principles  of  equity,  since  it 
lacks  any  intelligent  relation  between  pay  and 
performance,  is  doomed,  in  spite  of  hoary  cus- 
tom, current  practice,  in  spite  of  combined 
(although  opposed)  efforts  of  unions  and  em- 
ployers' associations.  Compensation  for  work 
cannot  remain  an  exception  to  the  general  law 
that  there  must  be  a  definite  equivalent,  based 
on  the  two  elements  of  quantity  and  quality; 
and  our  ability  to  measure  accurately  both 
quantity  and  quality,  whether  the  weight  in 
carats  of  the  diamond  and  its  blue-whiteness, 
whether  the  weight  of  coal  and  the  heat  units 
per  pound,  is  one  of  the  measures  of  civiliza- 

tion^ In  >all  the  ten-thousand  years  before  coal, 
—-  ,\- 


348  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

during  which  the  human  race  warmed  itself 
and  cooked  with  wood  fires  exclusively,  there 
is  probably  not  a  single  instance  in  which  any 
exact  heat-unit  equivalent  and  price  demanded 
or  paid  was  determined.  The  same  happy-go- 
lucky  vagueness  was  transmitted  to  coal  pur- 
chases, and  even  yet  most  coal  is  purchased 
without  reference  to  analysis. 

Wiser  buyers,  large  consumers,  purchase  on 
specification  sustained  by  analysis  and  verified 
by  test.  A  coal  that  looks  like  another  may  be 
worth  only  one-tenth  as  much.  Before  Archi- 
medes discovered  the  relation  of  weight  to  bulk, 
the  principle  of  specific  gravity,  before  he  ex- 
perimentally determined  the  relative  weights 
of  water,  gold,  and  silver,  goldsmiths  had  a 
joyous  time  swindling  their  customers,  since  it 
was  only  by  color  that  the  value  of  the  worked- 
up  metal  could  be  judged.  It  speaks  well  for 
the  general  honesty  of  the  ancient  coiners  that 
the  old  silver  and  old  gold  coins  are  so  pure. 
This  blind  trust  as  to  quality  would  not  work 
today  as  to  metals,  does  not  work  as  to  coal, 
will  soon  not  work  as  to  wages.  It  was  pon- 
dering on  the  problem  of  detecting  a  suspected 
swindle  that  led  Archimedes  to  the  discovery 
of  specific  gravity. 


EFFICIENCY  REWARD  349 

Efficiency  rewards  hold  good  for  nearly 
every  worker  in  life  except  the  day  worker. 
The  girl  who  makes  a  business  of  it,  secures  a 
valuable  husband,  an  enormous  and  permanent 
reward  for  a  very  few  days  of  competent  en- 
deavor. This  is  the  oldest  competitive  business 
of  all,  and  results  in  a  trust  greater  than  the 
Standard  Oil,  greater  even  than  the  Catholic 
Church. 

The  hunter  who  starts  early,  who  has  prac- 
ticed much,  who  works  hard,  brings  home  the 
game.  The  farmer  who  selects  his  seed  care- 
fully, tills  and  fertilizes  his  crops  scientifically, 
secures  twice  the  yield  per  acre;  the  merchant 
who  hits  the  fancies  or  the  necessities  of  the 
buying  public  becomes  rich;  the  lawyer  who 
wins  cases  charges  heavier  fees;  the  doctor 
who  has  made  a  name  for  himself  charges 
fancy  prices  for  very  simple  operations;  the 
clergyman  who  is  eloquent  receives  a  call  to  a 
larger  church ;  the  politician  who  stands  in  with 
the  boys  attains  ultimately  to  a  senatorial  toga. 
Everywhere — except  for  almost  the  largest 
class  of  all,  the  men  who  work  with  their 
hands — there  is  special  and  closely  connected 
reward  for  individual  efficiency.  Are  the  toil- 
ers to  have  no  efficiency  reward?  The  induce- 


\  350  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

merit  is  held  out  that  if  they  join  unions  they 
will  receive  day  wages- — high  day  wages — short 
hours,  and  that  they  will  not  have  to  work 
hard.  Permanence  of  pay,  which  is  far  more 
vital  than  rate  of  pay,  is  not  guaranteed.  It  is 
the  earning  in  a  working  lifetime,  divided  by 
.  all  the  days,  'that  counts,  not  the  nominal  wages 
per  day.  In  the  modern  industrial  state  initia- 
tive must  not  be  destroyed,  separate  action 
must  exist;  there  must  be  individual  as  well  as 
collective  bargaining;  the  individual  must  also 
C9unt;  the  guild  is  not  everything.  I  have  no 
antagonism  to  unions.  They  have  been  and 
are  still  very  necessary;  they  have  mitigated 
the  tyranny  of  the  employer  and  of  his  irre- 
sponsible foremen  over  helpless,  because  di- 
vided, workers.  Unions  should  be  supported 
in  their  every  eifort  to  make  the  work  of 
women  and  children  unnecessary.  Unions  have 
demonstrated  in  many  instances  that  very  high 
rates  of  pay  per  day  are  compatible  with  flour- 
ishing business  for  the  employer.  By  estab- 
lishing and  maintaining  a  scale  they  have  done 
an  eminent  service  in  preventing  a  blind  slash- 
ing of  wages  below  the  living  limit,  in  order  to 
lessen  costs,  high  for  reasons  not  connected  with 
wages.  Unions  have  accomplished  much.  Com- 


EFFICIENCY  REWARD  351 

ing  to  the  subject  from  a  different  point  of 
view,  I  agree  with  them  in  their  attitude  to- 
ward piece  rates,  which  are  intended  to  stimu- 
late strenuousness,  often  harmful  strenuous- 
ness,  the  exact  opposite  of  efficiency;  but  as  to 
a  fixed  rate  of  pay  per  hour  or  day  without 
reference  either  to  equivalent  or  to  individual-  ' 
ity,  the  whole  teachings  of  the  ages,  the  whole 
tendency  of  the  time,  are  against  it.  We  can 
well  excuse  churches  which  try  to  maintain 
their  tottering  sway;  we  can  excuse  dynasties 
who  inculcate  the  divine  right  of  kings ;  we  can 
excuse  guilds  like  the  stock  exchange  whicH 
attempt  to  limit  all  the  business  of  its  kind  to 
their  own  members ;  but  it  is  one  of  the  trage- 
dies of  this  era  of  discovery  and  invention,  this 
era  of  the  looting  of  natural  resources  of  the 
universe  for  the  sake  of  man,  that  justice, 
the  protection  of  equivalent,  should  be  denied  ,- 
both  employer  and  employee,  and  the  reward  of  / 
individual  excellence  be  denied  the  worker*—*-'- 

Never  before  were  fairness,  justice,  knowl- 
edge, accuracy,  so  much  needed.  A  hundred 
years  ago,  except  for  a  few  sailing  ships,  wind- 
mills and  waterwheels,  and  a  very  few  cards 
steam-engines,  all  the  workable  energy  of  the 
world  came  from  the  muscles  of  men  and 


352  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

domesticated  animals,  the  slow  man  and  the 
slower  ox  or  ass.  Men  and  animals  ate  today 
what  the  season's  sun  prepared  for  them.  The 
energy  was  incarnate.  In  the  last  hundred 
years  we  have  tapped  the  reservoirs  of  energy 
accumulated,  stored  by  the  sun  in  former  ages. 

We  are  like  a  young  man  until  recently  on 
scant  allowance  who  has  suddenly  inherited  an 
immense  fortune.  In  the  United  States  the 
uncarnate  energy  used  is  thirty  times  as  great 
as  was  the  incarnate  energy  sixty  years  ago ;  it 
is  as  if  each  head  of  a  family  had  inherited 
thirty  slaves  forced  to  labor  for  him  without 
pay  beyond  the  obligation  to  maintain.  It  is 
increasingly  less  the  hard  muscular  labor  of  the 
hands  and  body  that  counts,  it  is  more  and  more 
the  intelligence  to  direct  mechanical  slaves  that 
counts.  The  man  who  smashes  a  machine  be- 
cause he  fears  it  will  take  his  job,  the  man  who 
refuses  the  promotion  due  him  for  efficient  con- 
trol, misses  the  richest  gift  that  any  generation 
has  ever  been  offered. 

Efficiency  reward  cannot  be  equitably  offered 
to  the  worker  until  equivalency  is  first  conceded 
and  established.  The  basis  of  equivalency  is  of 
little  importance  compared  to  the  principle. 
There  is  no  moral  objection  to  employers  and 


EFFICIENCY  REWARD  353 

employees  agreeing  on  a  minimum  wage  rate 
and  maximum  length  of  workday,  but  never- 
theless an  equivalent  for  the  day's  pay  should 
be  set  up  in  work — a  definite,  carefully  deter- 
mined equivalent.  In  bricklaying,  for  instance, 
if  400  bricks  is  agreed  to  as  a  layer's  output 
for  a  day,  and  $4.00  is  the  wages  for  400  bricks, 
and  if  it  is  further  agreed  that  he  may  not 
lay  any  more,  then,  if  with  the  help  of  modern 
science  he  can  lay  the  400  bricks  in  a  single 
hour,  let  him  lay  them  in  that  time  and  return 
to  his  garden  or  to  the  companionship  of  his 
wife  and  children,  and  let  other  workers  take 
his  place  during  the  daylight  hours. 

In  the  words  of  that  three-thousand  year  old 
proverb,  "Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do, 
do  it  with  thy  might,  for  there  is  no  work,  or 
device,  or  knowledge,  or  wisdom  in  hell." 

The  trouble  with  piece  rates  was  that  they 
attempted  to  solve,  by  a  crude  application  of 
the  principle  of  strenuousness,  not  an  efficiency 
principle,  a  number  of  problems  that  could  be 
solved  only  by  the  application  of  many  effi- 
ciency principles.  Ideals  were  not  clearly  seen, 
common-sense  was  not  invoked,  competent 
counsel  was  not  secured,  discipline  and  the  fair 
deal  were  equally  neglected,  as  cases  are  known 


354  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

in  which  piece  workers  had  to  begin  work  at  5 
a.  m.  in  order  to  make  a  day's  wage.  Reliable 
records  were  lacking,  there  was  no  planning, 
no  despatching,  no  standardized  conditions  and 
no  standardized  operations — only  arbitrary 
piece-rate  schedules,  a  day  rate  of  average  cur- 
rent wage  to  the  phenomenal  worker  being  the 
ultimate  measure  of  the  piece  rate. 

The  first  strike  recorded  in  history  was  a 
strike  against  a  cut  in  piece  rates. 

And  the  Egyptians  made  the  children  of  Israel  to 
serve  with  rigour:  And  they  made  their  lives  bitter 
with  hard  bondage,  in  mortar,  and  in  brick,  and  in  all 
manner  of  service.  .  .  .  And  Moses  and  Aaron  went 
in  and  told  Pharaoh,  Let  the  people  go,  that  they  may 
hold  a  feast.  .  .  .  And  the  king  of  Egypt  said  unto 
them,  Wherefore  do  ye  ...  let  the  people  from 
their  works?  ...  ye  make  them  rest  from  their 
burdens.  And  Pharaoh  commanded  the  same  day  the 
taskmasters,  .  .  .  saying,  Ye  shall  not  more  give 
the  people  straw  to  make  brick,  as  heretofore.  .  .  . 
And  the  tale  of  the  bricks  which  they  did  make  hereto- 
fore, ye  shall  lay  upon  them;  ye  shall  not  diminish 
ought  thereof:  for  they  be  idle;  therefore  they  cry, 
saying,  Let  us  go  .  .  .  Let  there  more  work  be  laid 
upon  the  men  .  .  .  and  let  them  not  regard  vain 
words.  Pharaoh  said  to  the  children  of  Israel,  Ye  are 
idle,  ye  are  idle:  ...  Go  therefore  now  and  work; 
for  there  shall  no  straw  be  given  you,  yet  shall  ye  de- 
liver the  tale  of  the  bricks. 

What  followed  is  a  matter  of  history.  They 
walked  out  and  stayed  out  for  forty  years,  and 
then  their  descendants  got  other  and  better 
•jobs. 


EFFICIENCY  REWARD  355 

Piece  rates,  resting  on  a  wrong  and  vicious 
principle,  are  too  crude  a  device  ever  to  be  per- 
manently satisfactory.  The  time  required  for 
a  given  task  varies  with  the  general  overhead 
conditions,  varies  with  the  condition  of  the  ma- 
chine, varies  with  the  quality  and  excellence  of 
the  tools,  varies  with  the  hardness  of  the  ma- 
terial worked,  varies  with  the  number  of  pieces 
to  be  made,  and  finally  varies  with  the  experi- 
ence, strength  and  skill  of  the  operator. 

If  all  conditions  have  been  standardized,  if 
rates  have  been  based  on  times  carefully,  scien- 
tifically, and  impartially  determined,  if  there  is 
a  guaranteed  rate  per  hour  in  case  piece  rates 
are  for  any  accidental  cause  too  low — then  an 
efficiency  piece-rate  system  may  with  difficulty 
be  made  tolerable. 

A  profit-sharing  plan  is  not  an  efficiency  re- 
ward. Out  of  the  eighteen  items  of  operating 
costs  or  manufacturing  costs,  as  distinguished 
from  selling  costs,  only  one  is  directly  influ- 
enced by  the  worker,  and  that  is  the  time- 
quality  of  his  work.  For  the  other  seventeen 
items  the  management  is  partly  responsible, 
but  often  many  of  them  are  beyond  the  control 
of  either  manager  or  worker — the  prices  of 
materials,  for  instance.  These  are  often  the 
largest  part  of  the  cost. 


356  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

In  building  locomotives  the  costs  of  direct 
labor  are  15  per  cent,  the  overhead  expense  15 
per  cent,  and  the  material  cost  70  per  cent. 
This  does  not  include  any  general  office  ex- 
penses or  selling  expense  or  profit.  In  another 
plant  the  raw  materials  amounted  to  $32,000, 
000  a  year,  the  labor  costs  to  $600,000,  over- 
head to  $400,000.  In  this  latter  case,  assuming 
a  manufactured  product  of  360,000,000  pounds 
worth  $0.10  a  pound,  and  a  selling  cost  of 
$1,000,000,  there  would  be  a  profit  of  $2,000,- 
000  or  5.5  per  cent,  about  $0.005  a  pound.  Let 
prices  drop  five  mills  and  profits  are  wiped 
out;  let  prices  rise  five  mills  and  profits  are 
doubled;  let  an  efficient  management  reduce 
material  wastes  one  per  cent  and  the  added 
profit  is  $360,000.  Let  labor  deliver  twice  as 
much  work  for  the  same  wages  and  the  gain 
is  only  $300,000. 

Equity  demands  direct  connection  between 
efficiency  reward  and  efficiency  quality.  A  dis- 
tribution pro  rata  to  wages  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  to  bad  and  good  alike,  of  a  profit  due 
always  in  largest  part  to  causes  over  which  the 
worker -has  no  control,  is  illogical  although  it 
may  be  kind.  What  direct  incentive  is  there  to 
a  good  worker  to  put  forth  special  effort  when 


EFFICIENCY  REWARD  357 

all  the  efforts  of  all  the  workers  can  be  nega- 
tived by  a  slump  in  the  market  price?  ^What 
direct  incentive  to  put  forth  special  effort  when 
the  laziest  and  the  most  wasteful  will  be  given 
the  same  proportionate  reward?  An  efficiency 
reward  is  one  which  the  worker  can  see  and 
grasp  during  the  effort,  one  that  is  paid  to  him 
for  his  individual  excellence  in  that  for  which 
he  is  individually  responsible.  What  incentive 
would  there  be  to  owners  and  jockeys  of  race 
horses  if  instead  of  stakes,  competed  for  and 
won  at  the  post,  a  small  portion  of  the  gate  re- 
ceipts were  distributed  pro  rata  at  the  end  of 
the  season  to  all,  including  the  also  rans  ?  What 
incentive  would  ball  players  have  to  manifest 
individual  excellence  if,  at  the  end  of  the  sea- 
son, all  shared  pro  rata  in  a  bonus  more  de- 
pendent for  amount  on  the  weather  than  on 
their  efforts  ?  Would  it  be  an  efficiency  reward 
to  offer  fruit  packers  a  bonus  based  on  the 
price  of  the  yield  when  a  single  frost  may  de- 
stroy the  whole  crop,  or  suitable  weather 
double  it,  with  prices  affected  by  competitive 
product  grown  three  thousand  miles  away,  as 
Idaho  and  Washington  apples  competing  with 
New  York  fruit? 

Profit  sharing  is  not  inequitable  as  are  piece 


358  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

payments ;  it  is  an  amiable  kindness  on  the  part 
of  the  plant  owners,  but  it  is  not  efficiency 
reward. 

There  are,  however,  forms  of  bonus  above 
guaranteed  wages  that  are  free  both  from  the 
inequities  of  piece  rates  and  from  the  colorless 
amiability  of  profit  sharing. 

The  worker  sells  two  different  possessions, 
both  his  own — his  time  and  his  skill.  He  should 
be  robbed  of  neither.  Time  payments  which 
make  no  allowance  for  skill  are  wrong;  skill 
payments  which  make  no  provision  for  time  are 
also  wrong.  It  is  easy  to  measure  time.  We 
can  do  it  with  the  watch  that  made  the  dollar 
famous.  In  horse  racing,  time  is  used  exclu- 
sively to  measure  skill.  The  horse  that  is  able 
to  clip  a  fifth  of  a  second  from  a  world's  record, 
may  by  that  act  add  $10,000  to  his  value.  Skill 
may  also  be  measured  in  time.  In  the  battle 
practice  of  the  American  fleet  it  is  more  im- 
portant to  fire  120  rounds  an  hour  and  make  10 
per  cent  of  hits,  than  to  fire  12  rounds  an  hour 
and  make  50  per  cent  of  hits. 

Mr.  F.  A.  Halsey,  in  his  premium  plan  under 
which  he  guarantees  compensation  per  hour 
irrespective  of  product,  and  in  addition  pays  a 
premium  of  one-third  pay  for  all  time  saved 


EFFICIENCY  REWARD  359 

over  previous  records,  laid  the  foundation  for 
rational  efficiency  reward.  As  usually  put  into 
practice  the  plan  is  imperfect,  because  the  di- 
viding point  between  day  wages  and  premium 
addition  is  carelessly  accepted  without  scientific 
or  reliable  accuracy.  It  reminds  one  of  the 
German's  measure  of  road  distance,  the  Stunde, 
or  hour,  which  conveys  no  meaning  unless  one 
knows  what  kind  of  an  animal  and  the  habitual 
speed  shown  for  an  hour.  In  the  centuries 
before  Stunde  was  a  measure  of  distance, 
Caesar's  millia  passuum — the  thousand  steps  of 
the  soldier — were  used  as  a  measure  of  time; 
very  accurate  as  to  distance,  not  bad  as  to  time, 
as  there  were  no  railroad  trains  to  catch;  but 
before  the  days  of  clocks,  (a  measure  of  distance 
based  on  guess  of  time  on  a  cloudy  day  was  not 
a  unit  of  record  either  reliable,  immediate  or 
adequate.  There  are  minutes  that  seem  like 
hours,  so  wearily  do  they  drag ;  there  are  hours 
that  fly  like  minutes,  each  minute  holding  more 
than  other  days. 

F.  W.  Taylor's  immense  merit  was  that  above 
everything  else  he  insisted  on  the  necessity  and 
possibility  of  determining  very  closely  the 
upper  limit  of  high  and  rapid  performance 
under  normal  conditions,  a  performance  that 


360  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

could  be  kept  up  for  years  or  for  a  working 
lifetime  without  detriment  to  the  worker,  yet 
that  eliminated  the  flagrant  or  avoidable  waste. 
Taylor  thus  laid  the  founations  for  equitable 
bonus  for  each  operation  to  each  individual. 

Gantt  was  the  first  to  evolve  and  use  in  the 
compensation  of  workers  a  plan  that  retained 
full  pay  by  the  hour  (therefore  pay  for  time 
quantity,  a  definite  original  recompense)  and 
pay  for  time  quality,  for  a  specific  task,  for 
which  a  most  carefully  ascertained  time  had 
been  determined.  No  reward  was  paid  unless 
full  time  quality  was  realized.  It  was  on  the 
principle  that  a  fisherman  either  caught  his  fish 
or  he  did  not ;  there  were  no  half  or  quarter  fish 
for  near  skill  in  angling. 

Many  of  nature's  efficiency  rewards  are  of 
this  character,  and  it  is  a  strong,  virile  prin- 
ciple. 

The  author,  owing  to  the  nature  of  the  work 
in  the  plants  he  was  counseling,  found  it  unde- 
sirable to  make  the  line  of  demarcation  so  sharp 
between  efficiency  and  inefficiency,  and  there- 
fore followed  nature's  softer  plan  of  efficiency 
reward.  Every  plant  or  animal  must  maintain 
a  certain  minimum  of  efficiency  or  it  dies; 
atrophy  results  in  extinction;  but  above  this 


EFFICIENCY  REWARD  361 

lower  limit,  reward  is  proportioned  to  effi- 
ciency— small  reward  to  the  less  efficient, 
special  honors  to  the  most  efficient. 

The  principle  of  the  wage  target  with  a  small 
bull's  eye  is  applied.  Shots  outside  of  the 
bull's  eye  but  in  the  target  also  count. 

In  the  original  plan,  while  certain  operations 
averaged  four  hours  under  the  same  workman 
working  with  the  same  diligence,  on  one  occa- 
sion the  time  would  be  five  hours  and  on  an- 
other three  hours,  owing  to  conditions  over 
which  the  worker  had  no  control.  It  was  highly 
desirable  to  maintain  the  interest  of  the  oper- 
ator in  the  discouraging  jobs,  so  while  a  stand- 
ard bonus  of  20  per  cent  was  paid  for  attain- 
ing standard  time,  while  10  per  cent  bonus  was 
paid  for  attaining  90  per  cent  of  standard  time 
and  3.25  per  cent  bonus  for  80  per  cent  of  stand- 
ard time,  bonus  stopped  at  67  per  cent  of 
standard.  If  less  time  than  standard  was 
used,  the  worker  was  paid  at  his  full  hourly 
rate  for  all  the  time  he  saved,  and  was  paid  in 
addition  20  per  cent  bonus  for  the  time  that  he 
worked.  A  workman  had  to  be  very  inferior 
who  could  not  regularly  earn  some  bonus.  A 
further  step  to  eliminate  accidental  and  inevit- 
able time  variations  was  suggested  and  worked 


362  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

out  by  two  advisers,  Mr.  Playf air  and  Mr. 
Whitef ord,  who  have  both  made  for  themselves 
names  in  efficiency  work.  Under  the  new  plan 
the  worker  is  charged  with  all  the  hours  he 
works  in  any  selected  period,  week,  month,  etc., 
and  he  is  credited  with  and  paid  for  all  the 
standard  hours  of  work  which  he  turns  out. 
The  bonus,  whether  for  job,  for  day,  for  month 
or  longer  period,  is  paid  on  the  efficiency  rela- 
tion between  actual  and  standard.  If  a  worker 
is  present  250  hours  in  a  month  and  turns  out 
250  hours  of  work  in  250  hours  actual  time,  his 
efficiency  is  100  per  cent,  and  he  earns  20  per 
cent  bonus  on  wages;  but  if  in  the  same  time 
he  turns  out  300  hours  of  work,  his  efficiency 
40  per  cent  on  his  wages. 

The  standard  times  are  most  carefully  deter- 
mined by  time  studies,  by  observations,  by  the- 
oretical considerations,  by  demonstrations, 
using  every  available  method  to  establish  fair 
and  correct  standards.  If  the  performance  is 
walking  on  a  good  road  and  the  time  eight 
hours,  we  settle  on  24  miles  a  day  as  an 
easier  task  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  each  quar- 
ter hour  as  in  some  of  the  monotonous  beats 
of  sentries  or  policemen.  If  the  performance  is 


EFFICIENCY  REWARD  363 

to  be  24  miles,  we  desire  to  take  for  it  neither 
16  hours  a  day  nor  yet  4  hours,  but  a  time  be- 
tween 6  hours  and  9,  according  to  the  prefer- 
ence of  the  worker;  and  it  is  further  realized 
that  the  best  standard  of  efficiency  is  not  a 
maximum  of  muscular  effort  for  a  short  time, 
nor  a  maximum  of  physical  wear  for  a  long 
time,  but  a  combination  of  mental  and  physical 
exhilaration  which  leaves  the  worker  in  best 
condition  at  the  end  of  the  accomplishment, 
whether  the  unit  of  time  be  a  few  seconds,  a 
day,  a  month,  a  year,  or  a  lifetime. 

Therefore,  in  this  particular  very  limited  ap- 
plication of  efficiency  reward  the  ideals  are: — 

(1)  A  guaranteed  hourly  rate. 

(2)  A  lower  limit  of  efficiency,  which,  if  not 
attained,  indicates  that  the  worker  is  a  misfit 
and  requires  either  special  training  or  change 
of  occupation. 

(3)  A  progressive  efficiency  reward,  begin- 
ning at  a  requirement  so  low  that  it  is  inexcus- 
able not  to  average  it. 

(4)  An  efficiency  standard  established  after 
careful   and   reliable  investigations   of   many 
kinds,  including  time  and  motion  studies. 


364  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

(5)  For  work  to  be  performed,  a  time  stand- 
ard that  is  joyful  and  exhilarating,  therefore 
intermediate  between  depressing  slowness  and 
exhausting  effort. 

(6)  A  variation  in  standards  for  the  same 
work  for  different  machines,  conditions  and  in- 
dividuals, the  schedules  therefore  being  indi- 
vidual. 

(7)  The  determination  for  each  worker  of  ar 
average  efficiency  for  all  jobs  over  a  long  period- 

(8)  A  continuous  correction  of  time  stand 
ards  and  of  wage  rate  to  suit  new  conditions 
This  is  essential  and  inevitable.  Wage  rate  rise,- 
f  under  the  new  conditions  more  skill  or  greater 
effort  is  required.    Time  standards  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  wages.    They  are  not  changed 
to  affect  earnings  either  one  way  or  the  other, 
but  to  be  accurate  and  just.  The  time  standard 
for  covering  a  mile  for  a  man  on  foot  is  inev- 
itably less  for  a  man  on  a  bicycle,  inevitably 
less  for  a  man  on  a  motor  cycle  than  for  a  man 
on  a  bicycle. 

(9)  The  worker  must  have  the  personal  op- 
tion of  working  not  to  a  standard  time,  but  be- 
tween limits  on  each  side  of  standard  time.    If 
he  does  not  consider  standard  time  fair,  he  can 


EFFICIENCY  REWARD  365 

take  his  assumed  hourly  rate  and  show  lower 
efficiency,  which  greatly  enhances  the  cost  to  the 
employer,  whose  self-interest  has  so  to  improve 
physical  or  psychical  conditions  as  to  induce  the 
worker  to  attain  standards. 

Efficiency  constitutes  9  out  of  the  18  elements 
of  cost — efficiency  of  quality  and  quantity  and 
overhead  for  materials,  for  labor  and  for  fixed 
charges.  It  has  been  found  exceedingly  satisfac- 
tory and  convenient  to  base  efficiency  rewards 
on  the  cost  of  efficiencies,  the  method  being  so 
flexible  as  to  be  applicable  to  an  individual  oper- 
ation of  a  few  minutes'  duration,  or  to  all  the 
work  of  a  man  for  a  long  period,  or  to  all  the 
work  of  department  or  plant. 

Nevertheless,  these  various  forms  of  bonus 
are  but  devices  of  great  practical  value,  just  as 
a  foot  rule  or  the  multiplication  table  is  of 
practical  value,  but  for  importance  they  are  not 
to  be  compared  to  the  broad  principle  of  effi- 
ciency reward  which  is  far  above  any  particular 
device.  It  is  therefore  absolutely  impossible 
for  any  combination  of  workers  to  prevent  the 
application  of  the  principle  of  efficiency  reward 
if  any  management  chooses  to  adopt  it. 

Efficiency  reward  is  not  a  money  payment, 
this  is  only  one  of  its  myriad  forms.  Men  have 


366          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

been  willing  to  die  for  a  smile.  Hobson  relates 
that  one  man  offered  to  forfeit  a  year's  pay  if 
they  would  but  allow  him  to  be  one  of  the  crew 
to  sink  the  "Merrimac"  across  the  entrance  to 
Santiago  harbor.  Garibaldi  offered  his  hearers 
hunger,  thirst,  hardship,  wounds,  prison  and 
death,  and  in  a  frenzy  of  eagerness  they  fol- 
lowed him. 

Highest  efficiency  is  easily  stimulated,  al- 
though there  is  often  no  more  direct  connec- 
tion between  act  and  reward  than  in  profit 
sharing  which  does  not  stimulate.  In  Jack  Lon- 
don's elemental  tale  of  the  miner  of  Forty  Mile, 
the  girl  he  fought  for  was  the  direct  prize.  He 
would  have  had  to  fight  if  there  had  been  no 
girl  and  he  would  have  lost,  but  in  Victior 
Hugo's  "Toilers  of  the  Sea,"  the  man  single- 
handed  saved  the  wrecked  steamer,  not  that  he 
might  profit,  but  that  he  might  win  a  girl's 
love.  The  bitter  tragedy  lies  in  the  fact  that 
he  had  striven  for  a  reward,  made  its  hope  the 
inspiration  of  his  work  when  he  should  have 
known  that  it  could  not  be  attained  in  that 
manner. 

Twelve  principles  of  efficiency!  We  began 
with  ideals,  we  end  with  ideals.  Men  must  have 
ideals  or  they  cannot  do  good  work ;  there  must 


EFFICIENCY  REWARD  367 

be  possibility  of  highest  efficiency  reward  or 
neither  senses,  nor  spirit,  nor  mind  is  stimu- 
lated. 

He  who  would  take  ideals  from  the  world's 
workers,  he  who  would  deprive  them  of  the  lure 
of  individual  reward  for  individual  efficiency, 
would  indeed  make  them  brother  to  the  ox. 

He  who  believes  the  road  behind  humanity 
registers  but  a  fraction  of  what  is  still  to  be 
attained,  seizes  on  the  principle  of  efficiency  re- 
ward to  bring  to  their  highest  development  ma- 
terials, muscle,  mind,  and  above  all,  spirit. 


XV 

EFFICIENCY  PRINCIPLES  APPLIED   TO 

MEASUREMENT  AND  CURE 

OF  WASTES 


The  better  prenatal  endowment  of  all  humanity, 
eugenics,  is  advocated  by  optimists.  Favorable  physi- 
cal and  moral  surroundings,  hygienics,  are  advocated 
by  practical  welfare  workers. 

Between  eugenics  and  hygienics  lies  the  almost  un- 
tilled  but  very  rich  field  of  character  analysis  which 
helps  the  worker  to  avoid  lines  of  endeavor  for  which 
he  is  not  suited,  which  counsels  as  to  the  lines  of  en- 
deavor for  which  he  is  fitted. 


CHAPTER  XV 

EFFICIENCY  PRINCIPLES  APPLIED   TO 

MEASUREMENT  AND  CURE 

OF  WASTES 

THERE  have  always  been  successful  men. 
Alexander,    Caesar,    Attila,    Jenghis 
Khan,  Charlemagne,  Timur,  Hideyo- 
shi,  Napoleon — conquerors  and  empire  builders ; 
and  these  men  unconsciously  practiced,  to  a 
limited  extent,  some  of  the  principles  of  effi- 
ciency.  All  their  work,  except  perhaps  that  of 
Hideyoshi,  is  characterized  by  immense  waste. 
Jenghis  Khan  is  charged  with  the  destruction 
and  death  of  6,000,000  human  beings. 

These  men,  even  the  most  destructive  of 
them,  had  ideals,  often  very  high  ideals,  which 
they  largely  realized,  but  waste  elimination  was 
not  one  of  them. 

The  ideal  that  inspires  the  formulation  of  the 
principles  of  efficiency  is  elimination  of  waste, 
of   wastes    of   all    kinds  resulting   finally   in 
wastes  of  the  collective  human  soul. 
371 


372          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

The  mistake  of  the  Hindu  is  that  he  is  an  in- 
dividualist and  seeks  his  own  Nirvana,  an  es- 
sentially feminine  task.  The  mistake  of  the 
Catholic  monk  making  his  salvation  is  that  he 
also  is  an  individualist,  and  is  essentially  femi- 
nine in  his  conception  of  the  universe.  The 
masculine  ethical  instinct  is  not  self  but  family, 
clan,  class,  section,  party,  nationality,  world — 
not  individual  aggrandizement,  but  the  ulti- 
mate perfection  of  the  whole  world,  the  creation 
of  an  earthly  paradise,  and  if  man's  progress  is 
slow  it  is  because  of  wastes — solely  because  of 
wastes — wastes  of  everything  that  is  precious. 
How  inconceivably  slow  has  been  human  pro- 
gress— waste  of  time;  how  the  accumulated 
stores  of  nature  have  been  looted,  the  forests, 
the  fertility  of  the  soil,  the  minerals  below  the 
surface — wastes  of  national  resources ;  how  in- 
conceivably hard  our  tasks  have  been  made  for 
us !  Cursed  has  been  the  ground ;  in  sorrow  has 
humanity  eaten  all  the  days  of  its  life,  thorns 
and  thistles  have  we  reaped  and  in  the  sweat  of 
our  faces  have  we  worked.  Wasted  lives,  sor- 
row instead  of  joy,  painful,  ignorant  effort  in- 
stead of  glad,  intelligent  activity ! 

Elimination  of  all  wastes  may  indeed  be  a 
Utopian  ideal,  not  to  be  realized  in  the  life  of 


THE    CURE   OP   WASTES  373 

our  planet,  but  any  waste  elimination  brings  its 
immediate  reward.  The  miners  in  California, 
the  forty-niners,  panned  gold,  and  no  ground 
that  did  not  contain  $20  to  the  cubic  yard  was 
pay  dirt.  The  cradle  made  $5  dirt  profitable,  the 
sluice  box  $1  dirt  profitable,  hydraulic  mining 
makes  dirt  profitable  that  contains  as  little  as 
$0.05  to  the  cubic  yard.  The  early  miners  were 
not  discouraged  because  they  could  not  work 
$0.05  dirt;  they  manfully  tackled  and  made 
their  profit  out  of  $20  dirt.  What  goes  into 
waste  is  precious  and  recoverable  value,  and  its 
elimination  should  bring  big  reward  from  the 
start. 

The  ideal  of  the  Twelve  Efficiency  Principles 
is  waste  elimination,  and  to  this  end  they  have 
been  formulated.  The  mere  purpose  for  which 
waste  is  to  be  eliminated  is  not  important.  The 
condemnation  of  Jenghis  Khan  is  not  that  he 
became  a  great  ruler,  but  that  he  unnecessarily 
destroyed  6,000,000  human  beings. 

No  navigator,  whether  pirate  or  merchant- 
man, can  make  best  time  for  himself  and  his 
ship  who  does  not  know  great-circle  courses, 
the  shortest  path  from  port  to  port,  who  does 
not  modify  his  course  as  little  as  possible  on  ac- 
count of  intervening  land,  shoals,  adverse 


374  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

winds,  or  currents.  No  man  can  achieve  great- 
est success  for  himself,  whether  malefactor  of 
great  wealth  or  captain  of  industry,  who  does 
not  eliminate  wastes  from  his  own  operations. 

There  are  ultimate  ideals  like  universal  peace, 
but  a  tremendously  efficient  present  naval  and 
military  organization  may  further  universal 
peace  far  more  effectively  than  inefficient  senti- 
mentality and,  even  as  an  efficient  navy  would 
be  most  reluctant  to  enter  on  an  unnecessary 
struggle  (since  its  personnel  by  reason  of  its 
efficiency  knows  better  than  anyone  else  the 
hideous  waste  and  cost  of  war) ,  so  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  conceive  of  an  efficient  leader 
being  a  great  malefactor,  or  of  a  great  male- 
factor being  efficient. 

It  would  not  be  a  risky  experiment  to  imbue  a 
criminal  of  any  kind  with  the  principles  that 
eliminate  waste  and  to  induce  him  to  practice 
them,  for  in  the  end  criminality  and  waste-elim- 
ination are  incompatible,  and  also  virtue  and 
waste  are  incompatible,  and  there  is  more  hope 
of  bending  the  efficient  sinner  into  paths  of  rec- 
titude where  he  will  accomplish  much,  than 
there  is  of  making  ethical  progress  with  the  in- 
efficient. 

Why  should  we  formulate  principles?    Why 


THE    CURE    OF    WASTES  375 

is  intuition  not  enough?  Intuitions  are  of  tre- 
mendous value.  They  reach  out  into  the  future, 
they  connect  us  up  with  the  infinite,  they  pull 
down  part  of  the  divinity;  but  to  call  into  ex- 
istence what  is  not  yet,  has  always  been  one  of 
woman's,  but  not  one  of  men's  major  instincts. 
We  owe  all  the  germs  of  civilization  to  woman's 
individuality,  because  she  works  alone;  but 
what  she  has  once  started,  men  take  over  and 
develop  on  a  gigantic  scale. 

Forty  years  ago  I  watched  the  workers  on 
the  Suez  Canal.  Many  of  them  were  girls,  dig- 
ging up  the  sand  with  their  bare  fingers,  scoop- 
ing it  into  the  hollows  of  their  hands,  throwing 
it  into  the  rush  basket  each  had  woven  for  her- 
self, lifting  the  baskets  to  their  heads,  and  car- 
rying the  load  of  20  to  30  pounds  a  hundred 
feet  up  the  bank  and  dumping  it.  Panama  ex- 
cavation is  being  done  by  steam  shovels.  Re- 
cently I  watched  one  of  them  at  work.  The 
fingers  of  the  Egyptian  girl  had  grown  into  a 
thousand-times-larger  steel  claws  that  dug  and 
scraped  the  shattered  rock  and  dirt ;  the  hollow 
of  the  girl's  hands  had  developed  into  a  scoop 
containing  two  cubic  yards,  or  five  thousand 
times  as  much  as  her  two  hands  could  hold ;  the 
rush  basket  had  grown  into  a  train  of  flat  cars ; 


376  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

the  shapely  arm  of  smooth  flesh  covering  mus- 
cle and  bone  had  grown  into  a  great  beam 
moved  by  chains,  flinging  great  loads  onto  the 
flat  cars;  and  instead  of  the  100  feet  of  walk- 
ing, long  trains  ran  perhaps  twenty  miles  to 
unload.  Development  by  men  of  a  woman's 
method. 

Woman  brings  a  baby  into  the  world,  but  men 
organize  a  million  grown  babies  into  an  army; 
a  woman  feeds  her  infant  from  her  own  breast, 
but  men  organize  a  commissariat  department 
that  encircles  the  world;  woman  teaches  each 
separate  human  being  to  rise  from  all  fours 
and  walk  like  a  man,  but  a  von  Moltke  speaks 
the  word  and  a  million  men  tramp  in  time  and 
measure ;  woman  chews  hides  and  greases  them 
and  smokes  them  into  the  softest  leather,  out 
of  which  she  cuts  and  sews  moccasins,  but  men 
take  the  hides  of  five  continents  and  cut  them 
into  a  million  pairs  of  shoes  a  week;  woman 
spins  her  single  thread  and  weaves  it  into  cloth, 
men  run  their  thousand  spindles  and  weave 
their  miles  of  fabrics ;  woman  makes  tepees,  but 
men  build  hundred-story-high  skyscrapers, 
housing  20,000  people;  woman  croons  her  lul- 
laby to  her  restless  baby,  but  men  organize 
grand  opera,  develop  the  phonograph;  woman 


THE    CURE    OF    WASTES  377 

whispers  to  her  lover  at  the  tryst,  but  men  by 
speech  to  multitudes  secure  presidential  nomi- 
nations and  pile  up  for  the  presidency  a  million 
votes  more  than  the  triumphantly  elected  Cleve- 
land; men  connect  their  offices  with  all  the 
other  business  offices  in  the  country  and  shout 
their  affairs  across  the  continent,  or  send  their 
danger  calls  two-thousand  miles  through  the 
air. 

It  was  Eve  who  ate  the  apple,  but  Noah  who 
made  the  ark;  it  was  Rebecca  who  deceived 
Isaac,  Rachel  who  robbed  her  father,  but  it  was 
Joseph  with  Pharaoh  who  organized  the  first 
trust  to  control  the  food  supply  and  who  ran 
the  first  corner  in  grain;  it  was  Pharaoh's 
daughter  who  rescued  Moses,  but  it  was  Moses 
and  Aaron  who  organized  the  first  strike  and 
walkout.  It  was  David  who,  with  his  followers, 
slew  two-hundred  Philistines,  but  it  was  Michal 
who  let  him  down  from  the  window;  it  was 
Saul  who  made  Israel  a  kingdom,  but  it  was 
the  witch  of  Endor  who,  to  help  Saul,  called 
Samuel  back  from  the  dead;  it  was  Solomon 
who  built  the  temple  by  collecting  cunning  arti- 
ficers, by  taking  counsel  of  those  who  knew 
more  than  himself,  but  it  was  Bathsheba,  his 
mother,  who  made  him  king. 


378  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

Woman  creates,  men  rarely  create ;  they  must 
work  developing  what  is,  and  big  work  they 
must  do  through  organization;  but  organiza- 
tion, however  much  its  heads  may  have  been  se- 
lected and  collected  by  intuition,  must  replace 
intuitions.  Wastes,  therefore,  are  not  to  be 
eliminated  by  intuition,  but  through  principles. 

The  empires  of  Cyrus,  of  Alexander,  ot 
Charlemagne,  of  Jenghis  Khan,  of  Timur, 
crumbled  at  their  deaths  because  they  rested 
on  intuitive  excellence,  not  to  be  transmitted 
to  successors;  but  Caesar,  Hideyoshi,  English 
statesmen,  the  founders  of  the  United  States, 
Napoleon,  Bismarck  and  von  Moltke,  trans- 
mitted organizations  founded  on  principles. 
Most  American  industrial  plants  and  business 
houses  have  come  to  grief  in  the  second  genera- 
tion, and  even  corporations  resting  on  special 
privilege  like  railroads  and  street-car  lines, 
have  passed  into  receivers*  hands  and  under- 
gone drastic  reorganizations.  In  trying  to  con- 
trol the  great  corporations,  our  statesmen,  al- 
though men,  are  governed  by  intuitions  not  by 
principles,  fail  to  swing  the  general  government 
into  line  to  do  its  part ;  they  make  the  general 
government  maintain  disastrous  and  wasteful 
competition  when  what  is  wanted  is  principles 


THE    CURE    OF    WASTES  379 

that  would  work  for  elimination  and  equitable 
distribution  of  the  immense  gain. 

Will  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  en- 
dure? Not  unless  it  succeeds  in  substituting 
principles,  efficiency  principles,  for  the  intui- 
tions of  Carnegie,  of  Schwab,  substituting  effi- 
ciency principles  even  for  the  intuitions  of  that 
great  genius,  J.  Pierpont  Morgan. 

The  task  before  Judge  Gary  is  a  greater  one 
than  making  steel,  a  greater  one  than  harmoniz- 
ing the  steel  producers  of  America,  of  the 
world;  it  is  to  inculcate  those  principles  that 
eliminate  waste. 

It  has  often  happened  that  in  industrial 
plants  where  high  efficiencies  were  being  ob- 
tained, visitors  confounding  system  with  effi- 
ciency have  come,  have  collected  devices,  cards 
and  forms,  have  gone  away  supposing  they  had 
the  secret  of  efficiency.  It  is  as  if  a  man  should 
appropriate  a  lawyer's  library  and  think  this 
made  him  proficient  in  the  law.  There  are  mil- 
ions  of  devices,  forms,  cards ;  no  one  can  grasp 
them  all,  understand  them  all,  and  the  chances 
are  that  not  one  of  them  will  exactly  fit  in  an 
untried  place,  even  as  no  eye-glasses  exactly 
suit  any  other  pair  of  astigmatic  eyes. 

When,  however,  all  the  devices  and  methods 


380  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

can  be  collected  under  a  few  heads — ten,  twelve> 
fifteen ;  when  it  is  possible  to  show  that  a  few 
principles  cover  all  the  possible  devices — then 
the  thinker  can  work  backwards  and  ask  him- 
self what  devices  or  methods  or  plans  has  he 
that  will  maintain  (for  instance)  ideals,  or  that 
will  give  him  reliable,  immediate,  and  adequate 
records. 

It  is  easy  to  test  the  efficiency  of  a  plant 
because  inefficiency  is  due  to  one  of  two  causes. 
Either  the  principles  of  efficiency  are  not  known, 
or  they  are  not  applied.  If  the  principles  are 
not  used,  high  efficiency  is  impossible;  if  they 
are  theoretically  approved  but  not  applied,  high 
efficiency  is  also  impossible.  One  of  the  main 
purposes  of  the  principles  is  to  give  instru- 
ments of  precision  wherewith  to  test  efficiency. 

In  going  into  a  plant,  seeing  the  evidences  of 
great  inefficiency,  the  first  step  is  to  find  out 
what  is;  next,  to  set  up  standards;  then  to  in- 
sist on  the  use  of  the  principles,  first  to  test  the 
administration,  and  then  to  direct  the  plant, 
knowing  with  absolute  certainty  that  if  they 
are  applied  by  a  valiant  and  competent  man, 
standards  will  inevitably  be  attained.  There  is, 
of  course,  no  absolute  and  final  standard.  The 
standard  initially  adopted  is  always  one  plainly 


THE    CURE    OF   WASTES  381 

within  sight,  easily  attained.  A  standard  of  54 
miles  an  hour  from  New  York  to  Chicago  is  at- 
tained today;  it  would  have  been  ridiculous 
twenty  years  ago.  A  speed  of  25  knots  an  hour 
across  the  ocean  was  planned  for  and  attained 
by  the  Mauretania  and  Lusitania ;  it  would  have 
been  absurd  in  1862,  when  the  fastest  steamer 
took  9  days  and  other  good  steamers  were  12  to 
13  days  on  the  ocean. 

Having  ascertained  what  is,  having  set  up 
standards,  the  plant  manager  and  his  counsel- 
lors ought  not  to  go  out  and  collect  forms  and 
devices  and  cards,  ought  not  to  install  clocks 
and  devices  and  checks,  systems  and  methods, 
but  ought  to  go  into  retirement  and  search  their 
own  minds  and  hearts  and  by  some  device  or 
method  test  the  extent  to  which  they  can  ap- 
ply principles.  A  convenient  device  is  to  assign 
a  score  card  to  each  principle,  to  draw  on  the 
card  a  checker-board  of  a  hundred  squares,  and 
by  marking  out  squares  record  his  judgment 
and  that  of  other  experts  as  to  the  extent  to 
which  efficiency  principles  are  being  applied. 

The  questions  are  not  as  to  the  number  of 
employees,  or  whether  the  buildings  are  brick 
or  wood,  the  equipment  new  or  old,  the  em- 
ployees men  or  women,  white  or  black,  free  or 


382  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

unionized,  nor  where  the  plant  and  what  the 
product  is ;  but  the  first  question  is,  "What  are 
the  ideals  ?" 

To  illustrate  the  method  we  can  tentatively 
apply  it  to  the  greatest  industrial  corporation 
the  world  has  ever  seen — the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation.  From  every  point  of  view  it 
ranks  high,  higher  than  most  corporations.  Or- 
ganized only  ten  years  ago,  it  started  with  the 
ideals  of  1901,  and  if  we  have  any  belief  in 
progress  these  were  higher  than  the  prevailing 
standards  when  the  Standard  Oil  Company  was 
struggling  to  the  front.  There  is  as  much  differ- 
ence between  the  ruthless  methods  of  the  old 
Standard  and  the  friendly  dinners  of  Judge 
Gary  as  there  is  between  the  "eye  for  an  eye" 
of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  Golden  Rule  of 
the  New  Testament. 

Twelve  years  ago  the  steel  business  of  the 
country  was  greatly  disorganized.  Every  man 
did  what  was  good  in  his  own  eyes.  There  was 
always  a  feast  or  a  famine,  very  profitable  or 
very  ruinous  prices;  it  had  become  an  axiom 
that  the  condition  of  the  iron  trade  was  an  in- 
fallible barometer  of  general  business  condi- 
tions. Very  able  men,  financiers,  lawyers, 
great  steel  producers,  combined  to  bring  order 


THE    CURE    OF    WASTES  383 

out  of  chaos,  and  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation  was  formed.  It  has  been  man- 
aged with  great  prudence  and  wisdom,  perhaps 
with  as  great  wisdom  and  prudence  as  indus- 
trial knowledge  at  that  time  made  possible. 
It  has  recently  been  investigated  and  it  is  inter- 
esting to  gather  from  the  mass  of  testimony  the 
ideals  of  both  investigator  and  investigated. 

The  ideals  of  the  Corporation  seem  to  have 
been: 

(1)  Law  abidence. 

(2)  Rational  publicity. 

(3)  Steady  prices  at  a  high  level. 

(4)  Maximum  tonnage. 

(5)  Permanence  for  its  own  business  by  the 
purchase  of  large  ore  and  coal  reserves. 

(6)  Rapid  improvement  of  the  properties  so 
as  to  make  them  worth  the  capitalized  value. 

(7)  Maintenance  of  a  high  level  of  wages. 

(8)  Identification   of  the  worker  with  the 
profits  of  his  work,  thus  increasing  his  interest 
in  his  occupation. 

These  ideals  are  summed  up  by  Judge  Gary 
in  a  declaration  in  an  address  at  Brussels  to 
160  representatives  of  steel  interests  in  Europe 
and  America,  in  which  he  declared  that  "There 


384  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

should  be  established  and  continuously  main- 
tained a  business  friendship  which  compels  one 
to  feel  the  same  concern  for  his  neighbor  that 
he  has  for  himself.  It  is  nothing  less  in  prin- 
ciple than  the  Golden  Rule  applied  to  business." 

Critics  have  carpingly  suggested  that  the 
principle  should  be  called  'The  Golden  Rule 
Limited"  since  it  takes  no  account  of  mankind 
outside  of  steel.  This  is  both  unjust  and  nar- 
row. The  actual  price  of  anything  is  not  im- 
portant, the  relative  price  is,  and  even  more  im- 
portant is  it  that  relative  prices  should  not 
fluctuate  but  gradually  sink  compared  to  labor. 
It  is  the  immense  merit  of  the  Corporation  that 
it  has  maintained  prices  of  products  and  com- 
pensation per  hour  of  labor,  also  that  by  elimi- 
nating useless  wastes  in  selling  and  in  fighting 
competitors  it  has  been. able  to  make  good  the 
ideals  of  corporate  value  set  up  in  1901. 

The  criticism  ought  not  to  be  that  it  has  elim- 
inated several  hundred  million  dollars  of  waste 
without  any  detriment  whatever  to  the  Com- 
monwealth, but  that  it  has  not  been  able  to 
eliminate  more  waste,  and  from  the  gain  not 
only  add  to  its  own  profits  but  also  gradually 
lower  price  of  products  as  measured  in  dollars, 
and  increase  the  compensation,  measured  in  dol- 


THE   CURE   OF   WASTES  385 

lars,  of  efficient  workers,  thus  doubly  adding  to 
the  purchase  power  of  wages  efficiently  earned. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  use  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation  as  a  concrete  example  of  the 
way  the  principles  of  efficiency  might  be  of  ser- 
vice to  those  who  direct  and  administer  large 
corporations. 

Waste  elimination  in  production  expense  has 
not  yet  become  one  of  the  effective  ideals  of  the 
Corporation.  Does  it  cost  less  or  more  to  pro- 
duce steel  today  than  it  did  twelve  or  fifteen 
years  ago?  Is  it  not  costing  less  per  ton  ta 
transport  freight,  less  per  mile  to  transport 
passengers  on  the  railroads,  than  it  did  fifteen 
years  ago?  Has  the  Steel  Corporation  attained 
a  present  rational  low  limit  of  cost  of  produc- 
tion ?  If  it  is  not  applying  systematically  all  the 
principles  of  efficiency  to  every  minutest  opera- 
tion, then  naturally  its  costs  are  unduly  high, 
and  If  it  did  apply  these  principles,  its  costs, 
would  be  lower,  with  gain  to  all! 

The  Corporation  has  not  applied  the  prin- 
ciples firstly  because  there  were  other  vital  and 
elementary  problems  more  pressing,  and  sec- 
ondly because  the  principles  had  not  yet  been 
formulated  and  their  value  to  a  very  limited 
and  almost  unknown  extent  been  demonstrated 


386  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

by  F.  W.  Taylor,  H.  L.  Gantt,  James  M.  Dodge, 
W.  J.  Power,  E.  E.  Arison  and  many  others. 

If  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  were 
to  be  checked  up  by  efficiency  principles,  ideals 
would  be  first  formulated  that  would  be  of 
universal  'application,  and  the  lesser  ideals  of 
the  Corporation  would  be  checked  up  in  com- 
parison. By  this  test  as  to  the  first  prin- 
ciple, Ideals,  it  would  be  given  high  credit  for 
some,  fair  marks  on  others,  and  as  to  others  it 
would  be  found  very  defective.  It  could  not  be 
otherwise,  since  there  have  been  men  highly 
connected  with  the  Corporation  in  whom  the 
public  could  not  have  any  general  moral  confi- 
fidence  either  as  to  their  comprehension  or  ex- 
ecution of  ideals  except  of  the  lowest  order. 
Tonnage,  the  shibboleth  of  steel  production,  is 
a  low  ideal  working  havoc  in  more  ways  than 
one. 

Taking  the  next  square,  Common  Sense,  the 
Corporation  has  steered  a  remarkably  wise 
course  along  a  channel  beset  with  many  difficul- 
ties and  with  the  materials  at  hand  wonders 
have  been  accomplished.  The  Corporation  is 
Vulnerable  only  to  small  degree  for  what  it 
has  done,  but  to  a  large  degree  for  what  it  has 
not  done.  It  is  not  by  any  means  as  up-to-date 


THE    CURE    0*'   WASTES  387 

as  a  modern  American  battleship  which  can 
concentrate  repeated  heavier  salvo  fires  on  a 
target  at  a  greater  distance  in  a  shorter  time 
than  any  other  battleship  in  existence. 

The  square  of  Competent  Counsel.  Here 
again  there  appears  to  be  deficiency  of  omis- 
sion. Counsel  has  been  taken  in  many  direc- 
tions, legal,  financial,  political,  technical,  but  in 
other  directions  competent  counsel  has  neither 
been  invoked  nor  secured  because  its  need  was 
not  realized. 

In  one  Pittsburg  shop  there  are  fifty-six  dif- 
ferent nationalities  employed,  men  of  many  dif- 
ferent races.  In  London  there  has  just  met  a 
Universal  Races  Congress  with  delegates  from 
all  nations  and  all  the  races  in  the  world.  (I 
know  private  American  businesses  that  have 
sent  members  to  this  Races  Congress  in  order 
to  be  better  prepared  to  handle  the  race  prob- 
lems that  occur  in  American  shops.)  Is  the 
Steel  Corporation  represented  there?  If  not, 
how  could  it  afford  to  miss  the  opportunity? 

Discipline  and  the  Fair  Deal,  recognized  as 
principles,  have  both  been  conspicuously  in- 
sisted on,  and  both  are  intensely  desired  by  the 
Corporation  in  spite  of  local  murmurings  and 
occasional  sore  spots,  occurring  solely  because 


388  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

the  principles  have  not  been  worked  down  far 
enough. 

When  it  comes  to  the  application  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  Reliable,  Immediate  and  Adequate 
Records  and  of  Determination  of  Standards,  the 
Corporation  does  not  rank  high  because  it  is 
only  a  systematized  business,  not  one  scientifi- 
cally managed,  because  it  has  not  yet  emerged 
from  the  antiquated  standards  of  accounting  so 
beautifully  developed  by  the  Venetians  shortly 
af er  the  adoption  of  Arabic  numerals.  The  old 
principles  of  accounting  plainly  in  evidence  in 
a  modern  bank  are  three  in  number:  (1)  Des- 
tination; (2)  authority;  (3)  balance. 

In  a  deposit  bank  it  is  imperative  to  know 
where  to  credit  a  deposit,  the  destination  of  the 
account ;  it  is  so  imperative  to  have  proper  au- 
thority for  drawing  out  money  that  if  a  man's 
wife,  or  partner,  or  best  friend  attempted  to 
check  on  his  account  the  bank  would  be  horri- 
fied and  call  on  all  the  minions  of  the  law  to 
prevent  and  punish  such  sacrilege.  The  bank  is 
happy  when  as  to  the  whole  and  as  to  each  ac- 
count there  is  balance. 

These  ideals  are  fine,  important  and  desir- 
able, but  wholly  inadequate.  The  bank  does  not 
care  how  the  depositor  acquired  the  money  nor 


THE    CURE    OF    WASTES  389 

how  he  spends  it  after  it  is  withdrawn.  Its 
supervision  covers  a  very  limited  field.  It  is 
this  limited  field  that  corporation  accounting 
has  to  date  covered.  It  is  not  broad  enough. 

In  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  car-repair 
frauds  under  which  the  road  lost  about  $5,000,- 
000,  destination  was  perfectly  observed,  for 
bills  were  charged  to  definite  accounts ;  also  as 
to  every  voucher  authority  was  forthcoming, 
each  being  approved  by  some  official;  finally 
there  was  perfect  balance  between  vouchers  and 
expenditures.  When  the  frauds  were  revealed, 
President  Harahan  pathetically  mourned  that 
trusted  friends  had  deceived  him. 

The  modern  cost-accounting  fundamentals 
are  Standards,  Efficiencies,  Equivalents.  The 
Lusitania  in  crossing  the  ocean  steams  a  meas- 
ured number  of  miles,  in  a  recorded  time.  To 
do  this  requires  about  60,000  horse-power,  each 
horse-power  hour  requires  a  pound  and  a  half 
of  coal.  I  know  nothing  of  the  records  of  the 
Lusitania,  I  have  never  seen  any  of  them,  but 
off-hand  I  can  estimate  that  it  takes  about  1,000 
tons  a  day  to  run  the  ship.  This  is  a  standard, 
not  a  record. 

There  is,  as  to  the  Lusitania  and  all  other 
large  steamers  in  regular  service  on  definite, 


390          THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

fixed  and  measured  courses,  a  predetermined 
standard  of  expense  for  coal;  and  against  this 
standard,  actual  consumptions  are  checked,  or 
may  easily  be  checked  for  every  voyage,  closely 
compared,  and  keenly  scrutinized. 

If  the  Illinois  Central  had  had  standards  for 
car  repairs,  any  standard — $31  per  car  per  year 
as  Turner  attained  on  the  Pittsburg  and  Erie; 
$35  per  car  per  year  as  Van  Alstyne  attained 
on  the  Northern  Pacific;  $42  per  car  per  year 
as  some  railroads  might  think  sufficient;  $56 
per  car,  an  amount  that  any  competent  investi- 
gation will  show  to  be  too  much;  $70  per  car 
per  year,  about  the  average  of  all  the  railroads 
— then  the  Illinois  Central  cost  at  the  rate  of 
$140  per  car  per  year  would  have  shown  the 
following  efficiencies  according  to  the  different 
standards : 

Standard  Cost  Efficiency  at 

per  Car  $140  per 

per  Year.*  Car  per  Year. 

$31  22  per  cent 

$35  25  per  cent 

$42  30  per  cent 

$56  40  per  cent 

{570  50  per  cent 

and  there  would  have  been  instant  inquiry  by 
officials,  by  Wall  Street,  by  shareholders,  by 

*  Repairs  per  freight  car  owned  is  a  defective  unit,  but  the  illus- 
tration holds  good,  as  any  other  unit,  repairs  per  car  mile,  would 
still  show  Turner  and  Van  Alstyne  in  the  lead,  the  Illinois  Central 
far  behind. 


THE    CURE    OF   WASTES  391 

Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  by  rivals  and 
critics,  as  to  the  why  and  wherefore  of  the  low 
efficiencies,  as  to  the  absence  of  equivalence  be- 
tween moneys  spent  and  results  obtained. 

The  United  States  Steel  Corporation  has  rec- 
ords of  productive  cost  which  it  may  think  are 
standards,  but  they  are  not;  they  are  mere 
records  of  what  has  been  accomplished  in  the 
past,  and  there  is  absolutely  no  direct  connec- 
tion between  what  has  been  and  what  ought  to 
be.  Records  grope  in  the  past,  standards  reach 
into  the  future,  ultimate  standards  are  always 
ahead  of  what  has  ever  been.  Practical  stand- 
ards hang  like  stalactites  from  the  roof  of  ideal 
standards,  records  are  built  up  like  stalagmites 
from  the  floor  of  actual  performance ;  it  is  only 
when  stalactite  tip  and  stalagmite  tip  join  and 
fuse  that  both  become  a  column  of  efficiency 
strength.  Does  the  Steel  Corporation  know  as 
to  every  detail  what  ought  to  be  as  well  as  it 
knows  what  has  been?  If  it  does  not,  it  is 
merely  systematized;  it  cannot  measure  its 
losses,  and  where  there  is  no  standard  there  is 
inevitably  waste,  and  very  great  waste. 

We  next  consider  the  application  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  Standardized  Conditions  and  Stand- 
ardized Operations.  Are  conditions  standard- 


392  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

ized  to  the  same  extent  as  in  a  railroad  track, 
as  in  railroad  cars  and  locomotives,  always 
maintained  in  a  high  degree  of  efficient  repair, 
because  life  is  at  stake  if  they  are  not? 

Poor  belting,  poor  abrasive  wheels,  poorly 
maintained  machines,  delayed  deliveries  of  ma- 
terial, do  not  endanger  life  in  the  operation  of 
an  industrial  plant;  therefore  nobody  cares 
very  much,  and  because  nobody  cares,  because 
no  alarm  clock  goes  off,  lax  and  slack  conditions 
prevail.  It  is  not  even  necessary  to  prove  that 
laxity  and  slackness  exist;  the  legitimate  as- 
sumption is  that  they  do  unless  the  contrary  is 
proven. 

An  eight-year-old  child  who  has  never  been 
to  school  presumably  cannot  read,  and  to  pre- 
vent arrest  by  the  truant  officer  proof  of  effi- 
ciency has  to  be  furnished  by  the  parent  to  the 
municipal  authorities.  So  with  corporations 
who  have  not  learned  the  alphabet  of  efficiency. 
In  the  Corporation  have  single  operations  been 
standardized,  not  only  the  centralized,  super- 
vised and  oft-repeated  operations,  but  also  the 
decentralized,  unsupervised,  occasional  opera- 
tion? 

Continual  hammering  on  the  same  spike  will 
ultimately  sink  it  into  very  hard  wood,  it  is  an 


THE    CURE    OF    WASTES  393 

oft-repeated  operation;  but  it  is  much  harder 
to  throw  a  stone  straight.  Therefore  we  ham- 
mer as  did  prehistoric  men;  the  operation  was 
almost  as  perfect  then  as  now;  but  we  have 
had  to  develop  a  staff  of  thirty  men  working  all 
together  to  standardize  such  an  unusual  opera- 
tion as  throwing  a  1,000-pound  shot  at  an  en- 
emy's vessel. 

Has  the  Steel  Corporation  so  standardized 
conditions  and  operations  as  to  enable  it  to 
draw  up  Standard-Practice  Instructions  cover- 
ing all  details?  No  one  standardizes  without 
reducing  the  standards  to  written  form.  The 
object  of  surveys  is  to  make  maps,  more  or 
less  elaborate,  that  all  may  profit.  If  there  are 
no  maps  of  a  region  it  is  safe  to  assume  that 
there  are  few  and  imperfect  surveys.  By  its 
collection  of  standard-practice  instructions  the 
Steel  Corporation  could  demonstrate  its  effi- 
ciency status,  whether  very  elementary  or  far 
advanced.  With  a  good  chart  in  his  hands  one 
captain  can  replace  another  without  danger 
even  in  risky  waters.  In  industrial  plants  most 
of  the  charts  are  under  some  foreman's  or 
worker's  hat,  and  it  would  not  be  possible  (as 
it  ought  to  be),  without  loss,  to  walk  in  a  new 
industrial  army,  privates  and  officers,  and  take 
up  interrupted  work,  without  delay  or  loss. 


394  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

As  to  the  next  principle,  Despatching,  it  is 
undoubtedly  applied  by  the  Corporation  on  a 
wholesale  scale  but  not  in  detail.  Large  steam- 
ers laden  with  ore  are  regularly  despatched 
from  the  far  end  of  Lake  Superior  to  the  lower 
end  of  Lake  Erie.  Big  apparatus  is  used  for 
loading  and  unloading  these  steamers;  but  is 
each  scoopful  handled  with  the  maximum  of 
efficiency?  As  railroads  have  found  out,  it  is 
quite  as  important  to  despatch  passengers  into 
trains  and  out  of  them  again  as  to  despatch  the 
trains.  In  the  despatching  of  minor  operations 
all  except  standardized  industrial  concerns  are 
weak. 

Finally  we  come  to  the  principle  of  Efficiency 
Reward.  As  to  every  human  effort,  for  the 
highest  result  and  for  joyful,  healthful  effort, 
three  conditions  must  prevail : 

(1)  There  must  be  pleasure  in  the  work;  it 
must  be  a  game,  not  a  task;  it  must  be  what 
learning  to  ride  on  a  bicycle  or  learning  to  skate 
is  to  a  boy,  or  learning  to  dance  is  to  a  girl,  or 
playing  golf  is  to  the  elderly  business  man,  or 
auto  speeding  to  the  automobile  driver. 

(2)  There  must  be  a  definite  end  in  view,  a 
definite  accomplishment  in  a  given  time,  not  a 
vague,  never-ending  grind. 


THE    CURE   OF   WASTES  395 

We  are  not  accustomed  to  endless  day  or  end- 
less night;  both  are  depressing,  and  so  also  is 
a  perfect  unchanging  climate  or  sea.  Men 
want  change,  always  change,  the  sting  of  the 
blizzard  with  the  certainty  of  the  broil  of  the 
camp  fire  at  the  end  of  the  tramp.  The  ordi- 
nary man  will  scarcely  hold  his  breath  a  full 
minute,  but  if  trained  by  a  single  lesson  and 
nerved  to  a  definite  task,  timing  himself,  he  can 
hold  his  breath  for  a  minute  and  a  half,  for 
two  minutes,  for  three  minutes,  or  even  for 
four.  He  acquires  form. 

(3)  Form  is  the  third  requisite  for  easy, 
graceful,  pleasurable  work.  Compare  the 
skilled  skater  with  the  novice,  compare  the 
skilled  man  riding  horse  or  bicycle,  scarcely  a 
muscle  in  use,  with  the  frantic  efforts  of  the 
learner,  compare  the  dexterity  of  the  juggler 
with  the  clumsiness  of  the  imitator. 

The  Steel  Corporation  has  installed  the  plan, 
the  duty  of  profit  sharing,  but  has  it  recognized 
the  principle  of  Efficiency  Reward  in  the  great 
army  of  its  workers?  Has  it  set  up  a  standard 
task  in  a  standard  time?  Is  there  immense  joy 
in  each  one's  work?  Is  there  perfected  form  in 
doing  the  work? 

Minimum  effort  put  forth  in  best  form  to  at- 


396  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

tain  a  standard  in  definite  time  gives  the  joy  of 
work,  and  this  joy  is  added  to  the  pleasure  of 
securing  the  special  reward  for  proficiency. 
Are  these  the  conditions  under  which  the  steel 
workers  labor?  If  not,  the  workers  cannot  be 
efficient  and  wastes  are  occurring. 

Whether  we  check  up  the  making  of  a  pin 
and  its  cost  or  the  operations  for  a  decade  of 
the  greatest  corporation  in  the  world,  the  same 
methods  can  be  applied  to  reveal  weaknesses 
and  to  show  the  need  of  special  remedies.  The 
principles  of  efficiency  are  to  the  industrial 
plant  what  the  principles  of  hygiene  are  to  life. 
If  man,  woman  or  child  does  not  have  constant- 
ly changing  air  of  sufficient  purity,  an  abund- 
ance of  good  food  and  water,  plenty  of  exercise 
as  well  as  rest  and  sleep,  constant  keen  inter- 
ests and  sudden  changes,  health  will  suffer,  no 
matter  what  the  occupation. 

No  matter  what  the  occupation,  no  act  is 
efficient  if  the  principles  on  which  efficiency  is 
based  are  lacking. 

Franklin  collected  thirteen  principles  to 
cover  the  small  amenities  of  daily  life.  They 
were:  Temperance,  silence,  order,  resolution, 
frugality,  industry,  sincerity,  justice,  modera- 
tion, cleanliness,  tranquility,  chastity,  humility. 


THE    CURE    OF   WASTES  397 

Each  week  he  picked  out  one  and  practiced  it 
diligently,  thus  creating  a  habit.  Each  year 
he  practiced  each  one  a  full  week  in  each  quar- 
ter, thus  covering  them  all  four  times  each  year. 
He  kept  this  up  for  many  years.  The  uncouth 
Franklin  of  early  manhood  who  found  fault 
with  his  wife  for  giving  him  a  silver  spoon  and 
a  china  bowl  for  his  bread  and  milk  instead  of 
a  pewter  spoon  and  earthenware  crock,  devel- 
oped into  the  statesman  and  man  of  the  world 
who  won  the  respect  of  Englishmen,  the  ad- 
miration of  Frenchmen,  and  the  gratitude  of 
Americans.  In  a  similar  way  ought  the  prin- 
ciples of  efficiency  to  be  applied  and  reapplied. 


XVI 

EXECUTIVE  CONTROL  OF  LINE  AND 
STAFF 


The  longer  I  live  the  more  I  am  certain  that  the 
great  difference  between  men,  between  the  feeble  and 
the  powerful,  the  great  and  the  insignificant,  is  energy 
— invincible  determination — a  purpose  once  fixed,  and 
then  death  or  victory.  That  quality  will  do  anything 
that  can  be  done  in  this  world;  and  no  talents,  no  cir- 
cumstances, no  opportunities,  will  make  a  two-legged 
creature  a  man  without  it. — SIR  THOMAS  FOWELL  Bux- 

TON. 

Pharaoh  demanded  bricks  without  straw.  Christ 
did  not  expect  figs  from  thistles. 

Shall  we  expect  a  man  to  be  either  contented, 
skilled  or  happy  at  work  for  which  he  is  not  fitted? 
— DR.  KATHERINE  M.  H.  BLACKFORD. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

EXECUTIVE  CONTROL  OF  LINE  AND 
STAFF 

INDUSTRIAL  plants  remind  me  of  automo- 
biles.   The  plants  themselves  may  be  more 
or  less  good,  but  on  what  kind  of  roads 
are  they  running?    The  philosophy  of  efficiency 
is  for  an  industrial  plant — for  any  enterprise, 
activity,  or  undertaking — what  a  network  of 
good  roads  is  for  automobiles.     Undoubtedly 
even  on  poor  roads  automobiles  may  make  some 
progress ;  but  the  worse  the  road,  the  more  ele- 
mentary must  be  the  means  of  locomotion. 

Railroads,  high  roads,  bye-roads,  bridle 
paths,  foot  paths,  mountain  climbs !  The  unlet- 
tered mountaineer  of  all  countries  is  the  best 
man  for  the  latter,  and  it  takes  the  best  kind 
of  trained  climbing  expert  to  emulate  him ;  but 
as  the  road  is  improved  shoes  are  exchanged 
for  horses,  horses  for  bicycles,  a  change  from 
one  kind  of  muscular  effort  to  another,  bicycles 
401 


402  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

for  automobiles,  automobiles  for  railroad  trains, 
both  these  latter  using  uncarnate  energy  in- 
stead of  muscular  or  incarnate  energy.  The 
all-around  skill  of  the  mountaineer  becomes  the 
subdivided,  specialized  skill  of  many  different 
men  who  are  supplemented  with  increasingly 
complex  equipment. 

The  philosophy  of  efficiency  is  to  be  used  to 
build  roads  along  which  any  organization  can 
travel  with  the  least  friction  and  the  greatest 
advantage,  and  the  more  ramified  and  involved 
the  business  the  more  is  the  philosophy  needed. 

However,  no  highly  complex  automobile, 
even  with  the  best  network  of  roads,  can  make 
any  great  progress  unless  in  the  hands  of  a 
skilled  directing  intelligence — no  highly  com- 
plex human  enterprise,  though  it  uses  all  the 
principles  of  efficiency,  can  make  any  great 
progress  unless  guided  by  a  skilled  intelligence. 

I  remember  a  large  manufacturing  concern 
whose  superintendent,  a  man  of  great  energy, 
ambition,  magnetism,  had  married  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  owner  and  in  time  succeeded  to  the 
direction  and  management.  The  old  plant  was 
in  smooth  working  order,  its  old  employees  had 
worn  paths  from  their  homes  to  their  machines ; 
routine,  evolved  and  worn  into  a  groove  by 


EXECUTIVE  CONTROL  403 

many  years  of  practice,  made  anything  more 
than  ordinary  directing  intelligence  unneces- 
sary. The  superintendent,  becoming  president, 
resolved  to  build  a  modern  plant  in  a  new  place, 
to  equip  it  with  up-to-date  motor-driven  tools. 
He  did  not  know  that  he  was  tearing  up  the 
old  foot  paths  and  providing  no  new  roads  for 
his  complex  machine  to  run  on.  At  the  time 
of  the  move  he  scrapped  not  only  intentionally 
the  old  buildings  and  the  old  equipment,  but 
also  unwittingly  all  the  ingrained  habits  and 
routine  of  a  generation.  The  old  employees  no 
longer  automatically  traveled  from  home  to 
plant,  no  longer  automatically  acted  as  the  cogs 
in  the  well  oiled  machine.  They  had  to  go  sev- 
eral miles  from  their  homes,  over  roads  and 
by  means  that  were  new,  to  enter  a  strange 
plant  where  nothing  was  familiar,  and  to  at- 
tempt work  on  new-fangled  machines.  Instead 
of  jogging  through  the  day  like  well  trained  car 
horses,  stopping  and  starting  at  the  jingle  of 
the  bell,  they  had  to  stop  and  take  thought  for 
every  movement.  The  plant  drifted  financially 
down-stream  like  a  steamer  with  broken  engines 
caught  in  a  tide  bore.  Earnings  fell  off  a  mil- 
lion and  a  half,  and  then  the  president,  discov- 
ering the  situation,  told  me  that  in  making  the 


404  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

change  he  had  foreseen  five-years  loss  before 
he  could  be  back  to  the  excellence  of  the  old 
plant.  Perhaps  he  had  foreseen  it;  but  in  that 
case,  instead  of  being  merely  enthusiastic  and 
inexperienced,  he  was  little  better  than  crim- 
inal; for,  to  foresee  is  to  prevent,  and  as  he 
supplied  new  and  better  buildings  before  he 
scrapped  the  old  ones,  as  he  installed  new  and 
better  machines  before  he  scrapped  the  old 
ones,  so  even  to  greater  degree  was  it  his  duty 
to  provide  something  to  take  the  place  of  the 
old  and  scrapped  routine — and  that  something 
was  a  modern  controlling  organization  based 
on  the  philosophy  of  efficiency,  an  organization 
in  which  the  president  would  have  been  great 
in  proportion  to  his  ability  to  serve  and  aid 
even  the  smallest  tool  in  its  work,  and  thus 
make  it  possible  for  the  routine  man,  for  the 
machines,  to  do  their  best.  Because  as  a  presi- 
dent he  failed  to  realize  his  duties,  his  men 
worked  listlessly  two-thirds  of  the  time  on  ma- 
chines geared  up  to  half -capacity,  and  his  whole 
plant  floundered  along  at  scarcely  30  per  cent 
efficiency. 

The  best  plant  in  the  world,  the  best  philoso- 
phy of  efficiency,  will  in  themselves  make  no 
better  combination  than  a  good  automobile  on 


EXECUTIVE    CONTROL  405 

a  network  of  perfect  roads,  with  nobody  to 
handle  the  starting  and  steering  wheel.  The 
most  picturesque  figure  in  all  railroading  is  the 
locomotive  engineer.  In  vain,  back  in  the  thir- 
ties, did  a  masterful  conductor  on  what  is  now 
a  part  of  the  Erie  system  thrash  a  disobedient 
engineer  into  subjection  and  thus  for  all  time 
in  America  establish  the  conductor's  suprem- 
acy, a  supremacy  neither  recognized  nor  exist- 
ing in  Europe;  in  vain  do  civil  engineers  im- 
prove roadbeds,  tracks,  bridges  and  terminals; 
in  vain  do  builders  make  marvelous  locomotives 
and  more  marvelous  cars;  in  vain  do  general 
managers  make  schedules,  do  train  despatchers 
issue  orders,  signal  men  turn  switches ;  in  vain 
do  giants  of  finance  combine  roads  into  systems 
and  systems  into  aggregations ;  trains  could  not 
run  without  the  engineer  in  the  cab,  the  man 
who  slows  up  when  the  cow  lingers  on  the 
track,  who  stops  or  smashes  through  according 
to  his  own  instantaneous  resolve  when  the  ban- 
dit has  piled  obstructions  on  the  track,  who 
senses  the  signals  rather  than  sees  them  in  the 
stormy  night,  who,  an  hour  behind  at  the  start, 
runs  into  the  terminal  on  time.  After  all  the 
elaborate  rules  and  regulations  have  been 
drafted,  tried  out,  revised,  and  promulgated, 


406  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

there  is  inserted  for  the  benefit  of  the  engineer 
a  saving  clause  absolving  him  from  literal  ob- 
servance of  any  rule:  "When  in  doubt  pursue 
the  safe  course."  If  a  runaway  engine  were 
overtaking  his  train,  if  a  bridge  were  sinking 
beneath  him  into  a  swollen  river,  the  engineer 
would  run  past  any  red  light  or  block  signal; 
and  it  is  because  of  the  ultimate  supreme  neces- 
sity of  relying  on  the  man,  not  on  the  machine, 
that  railroad  men  are  reluctant  to  substitute 
automatic  train  stoppers  for  the  brain  of  the 
engineer.  Other  officials  can  doze  at  their 
posts,  but  the  engineer  must  be  wide  awake  and 
on  his  job  every  second  of  the  time. 

It  was  von  Moltke  using  the  staff  to  guide 
the  line,  not  the  mere  fact  of  staff,  that  made 
first  the  Prussian  and  then  the  German  armies 
invincible.  It  was  Japanese  intelligence  that 
first  enabled  them  to  adopt  line  and  staff,  and 
later  to  use  line  and  staff  for  victories  even 
more  momentous  than  those  of  Germany  over 
France,  for  in  the  last  two-thousand  years 
many  times  has  Teuton,  many  times  Gaul  and 
Latin  been  in  the  ascendant,  different  clans  of 
the  white  race,  in  fierce  but  brotherly  rioting 
with  each  other.  Quite  different  was  the  strug- 
gle when  Charles  Martel  turned  back  the  Mo- 


EXECUTIVE    CONTROL  407 

hammedan  African  invasion  of  Europe  on  the 
field  of  Chalons,  quite  different  when  940  years 
later  Sobieski  turned  back  the  Mohammedan 
Asiatic  conquest  of  Europe,  and  also  quite  dif- 
ferent was  the  victory  of  Oriental  over  Slav  at 
Tsushima  and  on  the  plains  of  Manchuria — a 
victory  not  of  religion  and  race,  but  of  efficiency 
over  incompetency,  of  adaptable  civilization  and 
progress  over  feudal  beliefs  and  reactions. 
Even  as  the  cantons  of  Switzerland,  the  prov- 
inces of  France,  the  American  colonies,  the  in- 
dependent States  of  Germany,  the  petty  king- 
doms and  duchies  of  Italy,  combined  into  united 
nations — even  as  the  triple  and  dual  alliances  of 
Europe  have  combined  for  common  civilizing 
action  discordant  and  hostile  races,  so  may  we 
hope  that  the  rise  of  Japan,  the  awakening  of 
China,  will  enable  West  and  East  to  combine 
for  the  advancement  of  a  common  humanity,  a 
hope  of  which  the  first  realization  is  the  meet- 
ing just  held  in  London  of  a  Universal  Races 
Congress,  a  meeting  that  above  all  else  needed 
a  master's  guidance. 

On  personality,  on  the  wisdom  of  the  indi- 
vidual, whether  locomotive  engineer  or  von 
Moltke,  whether  the  manager  of  a  plant  em- 
ploying ten  men  or  Judge  Gary,  chairman  of 


408  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

the  board  of  the  gigantic  Steel  Corporation,  will 
depend  the  ultimate  value  of  all  that  creative 
physical  or  philosophical  ability  has  brought 
together. 

Recently  there  was  submitted  to  me  in  the 
office  of  one  of  Chicago's  greatest  businesses, 
the  draft  of  its  organization.  No  man  can  pass 
on  the  merits  of  the  details  of  a  complicated 
organization  without  long  and  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  its  workings.  Seeing  the  plan 
of  the  Chicago  plant,  pressed  for  a  suggestion, 
I  said,  "Your  chart  is  upside  down;  the  presi- 
dent belongs  at  the  bottom,  sustaining  and 
carrying,  through  his  organization,  all  the 
operations  of  the  plant.  Because  he  is  in  su- 
preme authority  he  has  the  responsibility  of 
making  available  for  every  one,  down  to  the 
tool,  all  the  wisdom  in  the  universe  in  order 
that  each  may  fulfil  perfectly  its  special  duty 
and  task." 

Shortly  after  there  was  laid  before  me  the 
chart  of  organization  and  operation  of  a  great 
city  which  was  attempting  to  substitute  effi- 
ciency of  civic  administration  for  graft,  self- 
seeking  and  party  advantage.  Again  comments 
were  called  for,  and  again  without  intimate 
knowledge  of  conditions  how  could  any  of  value 


EXECUTIVE    CONTROL  409 

be  made?  According  to  the  chart  there  were 
various  departments  of  civic  activity,  police, 
schools,  fire-protection,  water,  streets,  etc. 
These  were  the  various  lines,  each  separate  and 
distinct  from  the  other  like  the  threads  of  the 
woof.  Across  them  were  to  be  woven  the 
threads  of  the  various  staffs,  engineering,  ac- 
counting, law,  hygiene,  efficiency,  etc.  The  ad- 
mirable theory  was  that  instead  of  each  line  de- 
partment having  its  own  engineer,  its  own  sys- 
tem of  accounting,  its  own  legal  counsel,  its  own 
efficiency  engineer,  etc.,  there  should  be  a  staff 
counsellor  from  each  branch  of  knowledge,  law, 
engineering,  accounting,  hygiene,  efficiency — 
to  advise  all  line  departments.  The  plan  was 
ideal ;  the  woof  of  line,  the  warp  of  staff,  would 
weave  into  a  beautiful  and  strong  piece  of 
cloth ;  but  who  was  to  cut  the  cloth  into  a  gar- 
ment fit  to  wear?  The  weakness  of  the  scheme 
lies  in  the  strong  human  qualities  of  the  vari- 
ous line  and  staff  officials,  and  the  stronger  and 
more  able  these  men  are,  the  more  trouble  will 
arise.  In  the  Middle  Ages  the  little  German 
and  Italian  States  were  constantly  warring 
with  each  other.  Lucky  the  peasant  whose  hold- 
ing lay  well  toward  the  center  of  a  small  State 
— at  worse  he  was  robbed  of  all  he  possessed  by 


410  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

his  own  kind  lord;  but  if  his  holding  was  on 
the  border,  all  his  lord's  enemies  made  a  special 
point  of  harrying  him,  killing  and  destroying 
as  well  as  robbing.  Different  lines  are  like  the 
different  feudal  States;  each,  especially  as  to 
border  lands,  is  fighting  with  all  its  neighbors. 
The  street  commissioner,  after  long  research 
and  experiment,  lays  what  he  hopes  will  be  a 
model  pavement,  and  before  it  has  been  open  to 
traffic  a  month  the  water  bureau  tears  it  up  to 
lay  water  mains.  In  running  to  a  fire  the  fire 
department  violates  all  the  speed  ordinances  and 
police  regulations;  and  the  less  important  a 
prerogative  is,  the  more  it  is  insisted  on  as  the 
visible  sign  of  special  privilege.  Departmental 
lines  are  difficult  enough  to  harmonize.  In  the 
usual  industrial  concerns  the  purchasing  agent, 
the  storekeeper,  the  order  department,  the 
manufacturer,  the  shipper,  are  all  at  war  with 
each  other,  the  stereotyped  excuse  being  that 
the  other  fellow  was  responsible. 

When  into  this  family  of  Kilkenny  cats  the 
staff  hounds  are  let  loose,  then  indeed  does  fur 
begin  to  fly. 

Each  separate  staff  man  is  regarded  as  an 
invading  enemy  by  each  and  every  line  head, 
and  all  the  lines  will  combine  against  all  the 


EXECUTIVE  CONTROL  411 

staff.  Even  if  many  of  the  men  are  amiable, 
sensible,  patient,  the  conditions  leading  to  dis- 
cord and  trouble  are  constant.  The  staff  special- 
ists constitute  even  a  greater  problem  than  the 
line  heads,  because  as  yet  their  duties  and  lim- 
itations are  not  so  clearly  defined.  The  ac- 
countant has  mathematical  convictions  about 
the  correctness  of  his  tie-up  with  the  laws  of 
the  universe,  and  because  accounting,  definite 
and  accurate,  is  older  than  most  other  sciences, 
because  it  has  made  possible  banking  and  mer- 
chandizing on  a  large  scale,  he  starts  in,  full  of 
enthusiasm,  to  impose  his  records  on  the  vari- 
ous lines.  These  do  not  understand  accounting ; 
they  have  all  the  practical  man's  contempt  for 
clerical  entries  and  diagrams,  they  feel  as  did  a 
tall  friend  of  mine  who  over  the  shoulder 
watched  an  accountant  figure  up  the  contents 
of  a  coal  pile  and  misplace  a  decimal.  There 
was  about  11  tons  in  the  pile,  the  accountant 
made  it  117,  the  seller  promptly  claimed  120 
and  compromised  on  115.  Another  episode 
nearly  forty  years  old  comes  to  mind  in  which 
the  eastern  expert  was  to  tally  ties  delivered  by 
a  contractor  to  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad. 
They  gave  him  a  seat  in  the  shade,  they  fur- 
nished sharp  pencils  and  convenient  pads,  they 


412  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

showed  him  the  heavy  branding  sledge  with  the 
raised  letters  "U  P"  on  its  face,  they  bade  him 
watch  the  hefty  navvy  indent  the  letters  in  the 
end  of  a  tie,  and  then  on  one  side  of  the  pile 
the  talesman  sat  tallying  each  resounding  blow, 
while  on  the  other  side  the  navvy  pounded  into 
the  earth  the  stump  of  a  burr  oak  and  one  or 
two  ties  in  addition.  What  wonder  that  the 
rails  and  ties  paid  for  were  twice  as  many  as 
required  for  the  length  of  the  road ! 

The  practical  man  has  often  evolved  for  him- 
self accounting  methods  of  control,  crude  but 
eminently  practical,  and  he  bitterly  resents  the 
imposition  of  elaborate  methods  which  do  not 
aid  control.  There  develops  a  festering  petty 
antagonism  between  directing  line  and  record- 
ing staff  which  vitiates  the  records.  Suddenly 
into  this  hostility  the  efficiency  expert  injects 
his  specialty.  He  exclaims  that  he  wants  stand- 
ards, records  of  efficiency  (i.e.,  the  relation  be- 
tween standard  and  actual) ,  and  that  he  wants 
to  convert  efficiencies  into  money  equivalents. 
The  crude  records  of  the  practical  man  do  not 
suffice,  although  they  may  form  an  excellent 
foundation  on  which  to  build.  Still  less  can 
the  efficiency  engineer  use  the  elaborate  records 
of  the  accountant,  since  these  do  not  tie  in  to 


EXECUTIVE    CONTROL  413 

efficiencies,  do  not  give  the  check  of  equivalent. 
Over  the  lively  and  vigorous  body  of  the  line 
man  the  two  experts  wage  their  battle.  Either 
records  must  be  duplicated  at  useless  expense 
and  with  added  aggravation  to  all  concerned, 
or  one  or  the  other  must  give  way.  In  the 
meantime  from  the  rear,  the  line  man  adminis- 
ters resounding  whacks  at  both  combatants, 
hoping  that  they  will  exterminate  each  other 
and  leave  him  in  peace.  Suddenly  the  legal  de- 
partment comes  along  and  advises  both  account- 
ing and  efficiency  expert  that  their  plans  lack 
legality,  that  women  cannot  be  worked  on  shifts 
of  seven  hours  for  ten  hours'  pay,  because  it  in- 
volves one  shift  or  the  other  working  after  6 
p.  m.,  and  this  is  against  the  law  in  Massachu- 
setts. 

For  these  clashes  of  line  with  line  as  to  au- 
thority, of  staff  with  staff  as  to  knowledge  and 
plans,  for  these  clashes  of  each  member  of  the 
line  with  each  separate  member  of  the  staff, 
there  is  only  one  remedy — namely,  the  strong, 
governing  and  controlling  executive,  who  need 
not  be  an  expert  in  either  staff  or  line,  but  who 
must  have  those  qualities  that  fit  him  to  direct, 
to  harmonize,  to  convert  a  closed  parallelogram 
of  forces  into  an  open  straight  line  along  which 


414  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

all  forces  are  summed  in  the  same  direction. 
Everywhere  this  executive  ability  is  needed. 

It  is  much  harder  to  manage  a  sledge  team 
of  eight  dogs  than  it  is  to  drive  an  equine  four- 
in-hand,  especially  in  starting  in  the  morning. 
Sledge  and  eight  harnesses  have  been  strung 
out  for  an  early  start,  the  dogs  have  been  given 
their  single  daily  meal  the  night  before.    Very 
early  a  single  dog  is  unchained  and  led  forth 
and  put  in  his  harness,  but  by  the  time  the  sec- 
ond dog  is  fetched,  the  first  dog  has  been  look- 
ing for  several  imaginary  fleas  and  tangled  him- 
self up  hopelessly.     Chaining  dog  two  to  the 
sledge,  dog  one  is  disentangled  and  dog  two 
harnessed  and  strung  in  front  of  him.     Dog 
three  is  then  gone  after,  and  while  the  driver  is 
away  dog  one  and  two  undertake  to  settle  some 
grudges  that  have  lasted  over  from  the  previous 
day.     For  the  third  time  dog  one  has  to  be 
reharnessed    and    straightened    out,    for    the 
second  time  dog  two,  and  dog  two  and  dog 
three  strung  in  front.     Happily  dog  three  is 
quiet  and  peaceful,  seems  well  manneredly  busy 
with  some  minor  affair  of  his  own.   Dog  four  is 
brought  up,  and  then  it  is  discovered  that  dog 
three  has  chewed  one  of  his  traces  into  bits  and 
a  new  piece  has  to  be  spliced  in — no  pleasure  at 


EXECUTIVE    CONTROL  415 

5  a.  m.,  with  the  thermometer  55  below  zero, 
and  the  night  camp  48  miles  away !  With  each 
successive  dog  there  is  some  fresh  trouble ;  the 
hitching  up  and  starting  is  the  hardest  part  of 
the  day's  work.  Trotting  along  hour  after  hour 
at  5  miles  an  hour  over  a  well  worn  trail  is 
rather  enjoyable  than  otherwise.  There  is  no 
inducement  to  stop  and  by  noon  30  miles  have 
been  covered,  by  six  o'clock  50  miles. 

Recently  I  visited  the  Long  Branch  Horse 
Show  and  watched  the  mail  coaches,  the  four- 
in-hands.  How  smart  everything  was!  Ap- 
pointments counted  for  much  in  awarding  the 
ribbons.  The  harnesses  were  nobby,  the  horses 
sleek  and  high-stepping,  the  guard  tooted  his 
long  horn,  the  driver  held  the  reins  just  so,  the 
cock-horse  with  his  single-tree  hooked  to  the 
saddle,  galloped  behind,  ready  to  help  at  the 
imaginary  hills.  It  was  all  beautifully  smart, 
with  that  typical  smartness  which  has  made 
the  English  leaders  in  many  things  from  table 
etiquette  up  to  manoeuvring  battleships. 

As  I  watched  the  fine  turnouts,  I  recalled  an 
earlier  scene  on  the  sage-brush  deserts  of  the 
far  West.  Darkness  coming  on,  a  lumbering 
mail  stage  hung  on  leather  springs,  a  paddock 
filled  with  wild,  unbroken  broncos!  Eight 


416  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

horses  roped  and  thrown,  the  rough  harness 
buckled  onto  them  somehow,  their  heads  cov- 
ered with  grain  bags!  They  were  hooked  by 
main  strength  to  the  dingy  old  stage,  the  bags 
were  pulled  off  their  heads,  a  pistol  shot 
cracked  and  in  a  mad  frenzy  of  rage  and  panic 
they  plunged  ahead.  The  driver's  two  tasks 
were  to  keep  them  on  the  jump  and  to  keep 
them  on  the  dark  trail.  Wild-eyed  and  madly 
they  galloped  at  full  speed  for  an  hour,  to  bring 
up  frothing  and  exhausted  at  the  next  station. 
The  performance  was  not  smart,  it  was  rough 
and  crude  and  primitive,  but,  Oh,  it  was  driv- 
ing !  With  a  little  practice  this  master  of  horses 
could  have  cut  a  figure  eight  with  the  English 
coach  and  high  steppers,  holding  the  ribbons  in 
one  hand,  but  also  the  immaculate  driver  at 
Long  Branch  could  have  learned  in  as  short  a 
time  to  handle  the  eight  ponies  through  the 
dark  night.  He  also  was  a  master  driver.  It 
was  the  son  of  a  lord  who  drove  an  automobile 
1,535  miles  in  24  hours  and  who  later  lost  his 
life,  one  of  the  first  of  the  aviators. 

Whether  on  the  grounds  of  Long  Branch,  on 
the  desert  trail,  in  a  section,  department,  divi- 
sion, or  plant  of  a  great  manufacturing  con- 
cern or  railroad,  whether  on  the  deck  of  a  bat- 


EXECUTIVE    CONTROL  417 

tleship,  or  on  a  battlefield,  what  is  wanted  is  a 
leader  who  can  swing  and  manage  what  has 
been  entrusted  to  him. 

In  1896,  after  six  years  of  agricultural  de- 
pression, after  three  years  of  financial  distress, 
a  tribune  of  the  people  suddenly  united  western 
and  southern  Democrats  and  secured  also  the 
support  of  one  million  populists.  He  had  no  or- 
ganization or  money,  but  in  the  west  and  south 
he  piled  up  twelve-hundred  thousand  more 
votes,  in  the  country  as  a  whole  nine-hundred- 
and-fifty  thousand  more  votes,  than  the  pre- 
viously easily  elected  Cleveland.  Then  in  the 
Republican  party's  hour  of  distress  arose  a 
man,  a  matchless  organizer,  for  the  sake  of  his 
friend  and  for  the  sake  of  his  party  politically 
absolutely  unscrupulous,  to  whom  votes  were  a 
mere  matter  of  organization  and  money,  and 
with  a  slush  fund  of  thirteen  million  dollars 
(levied  mostly  from  corporations)  the  cam- 
paign was  organized.  In  different  States  single 
weak  spots  were  picked  out — Oakland  in  Cali- 
fornia, Portland  in  Oregon,  eleven  odd  spots  in 
Ohio,  and  when  the  farce  of  an  election  was 
over  Mark  Hanna  had  the  count,  McKinley  ap- 
parently having  received  1,548,246  more  votes 
tha-n  his  immediate  predecessor.  This  election 


418  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

showed,  as  few  other  events  have  ever  shown, 
what  one  man,  a  supreme  planner  and  execu- 
tive, can  do  when  he  has  made  up  his  mind.  It 
is  a  comfort  to  turn  from  the  skill  shown  in  dis- 
graceful party  rivalry  to  a  nobler  executive 
skill.  A  reciprocity  treaty  is  attempted  between 
two  great  contiguous  countries,  each  with  over 
3,000,000  miles  of  territory.  Each  separate 
member  of  a  House  and  of  a  Senate  has  his 
own  views  as  to  the  subject,  its  probably  little 
effect  on  some  little  special  interest  of  some 
little  home  supporter,  all  important  to  the  po- 
litical fortunes  of  the  member.  The  quiet  and 
judicial  Taft,  with  no  legislative  functions,  sits 
through  the  sweltering  summer  months  at 
Washington  and  straightens  out  his  line  and 
staff,  and  the  bill  is  finally  passed.  Had  there 
been  no  strong  executive  there  would  have 
been  no  favorable  American  action  on  reciproc- 
ity with  Canada. 

The  chairman  of  the  board  of  the  Steel  Cor- 
poration is  a  lawyer,  not  a  manufacturer  nor 
yet  an  expert  as  to  any  steel  or  other  manufac- 
turing process,  but  he  is  an  expert  in  control- 
ling men;  and  the  great  corporation,  taking 
perhaps  a  generation  to  eliminate  losses  that 
ought  to  be  eliminated  in  five  years,  neverthe- 


EXECUTIVE    CONTROL  419 

less  develops  and  grows.  The  panic  of  1907  was 
stayed  not  because  it  had  spent  its  force,  not 
because  of  the  resources  of  great  banking 
houses,  but  because  one  strong  and  capable  man 
took  the  situation  in  hand,  gathered  into  the 
library  of  his  private  house  a  hundred  or  more 
leading  men,  and  by  his  executive  ability 
brought  order  out  of  impending  chaos. 

It  has  become  the  fashion  in  history  to  decry 
the  strong-man  theory,  to  turn  for  understand- 
ing to  evolution,  to  explain  the  strong  man  as 
the  inevitable  accident  of  the  moment.  There 
is  evolution,  there  comes  at  last  opportunity, 
but  only  rarely  does  the  strong  man  arise; 
hence  we  have  England,  not  Norway  or  Sweden 
or  Holland;  hence  we  have  Prussia,  not  Sax- 
ony ;  Germany,  not  Russia ;  Italy,  not  Portugal ; 
France,  not  Spain;  Japan,  not  Siam  or  Korea. 

In  1536  was  born  in  Japan  an  undersized, 
monkey-faced  boy  of  good  but  poor  parentage, 
who  at  the  age  of  thirteen  resolved  to  make 
himself  the  chief  power  in  the  distracted  king- 
dom. For  200  years  the  militant  barons  had 
warred  against  each  other,  each  trying  to  grab, 
annex,  and  hold  what  he  could. 

The  boy,  Hideyoshi,  deliberately  visited  the 
different  courts,  picked  out  the  baron  he 


420  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

thought  most  endowed  with  suitable  character, 
succeeded  with  great  difficulty  in  entering  his 
service  in  the  humblest  position,  and  then 
steadily  and  inevitably  rose,  firstly  because  he 
could  read  human  character  and  always  knew 
almost  as  soon  as  they  did  themselves  what  his 
and  his  lord's  enemies  were  plotting,  and  sec- 
ondly because  he  was  always  prepared  in  ad- 
vance for  any  undertaking  and  skilled  in  car- 
rying out.  Thus,  when  scarcely  more  than  a 
child,  he  reduced  the  cost  of  firewood  used  in 
the  palace  to  less  than  one-half;  a  little  later 
he  rebuilt  the  castle  walls  in  three  days,  a  task 
estimated  as  requiring  sixty  days;  again,  sin- 
gle-handed, he  secured  provinces  that  armies 
had  failed  to  conquer. 

By  gifts  of  tact,  of  insight,  of  diligence,  of 
readiness  that  each  one  of  us  thinks  he  pos- 
sesses, that  any  one  of  Nipon's  30,000,000  in- 
habitants might  have  possessed  and  exercised, 
Hideyoshi  arose  step  by  step,  until  he  directed 
and  guided  the  whole  country,  his  general 
lyeyasu  becoming  the  first  of  the  Tokugawa 
dynasty  which  lasted  from  1603  to  1867,  with 
headquarters  at  Yeddo  (Tokyo). 

Temuchin,  Jenghis  Khan,  born  in  a  tent  in 
1162,  son  of  a  petty  Mongolian  chieftain,  sue- 


EXECUTIVE    CONTROL  421 

ceeded  his  father  when  only  13  years  old.  Many 
of  the  tribes  immediately  rebelled,  but  Te- 
muchin  held  his  own  in  battle  and  in  counsel 
against  open  enemies  and  insidious  traitors, 
until  his  empire  extended  from  the  China  Sea 
to  the  frontier  of  Poland — an  empire  larger 
than  modern  Russia,  the  largest  the  world  has 
ever  seen. 

Neither  Alexander's,  nor  Caesar's,  nor  Char- 
lemagne's, nor  Jenghis  Kahn's,  nor  Timur's, 
nor  Napoleon's  empire  endured.  Personality 
alone  is  not  sufficient. 

The  tumult  and  the  shouting  dies, 
The  Captains  and  the  Kings  depart. 

Organization  alone  is  not  sufficient,  equip- 
ment alone  is  not  sufficient. 

Lo,  all  our  pomp  of  yesterday 
Is  one  with  Nineveh  and  Tyre! 

I  think  that  it  was  Bernard  Shaw  who  wrote 
years  ago  that  both  Capital  and  Labor  were 
powerless  unless  the  man  of  ability  conde- 
scended to  use  them.  It  was  less  than  a  half 
truth,  for  he  magnified  the  importance  of  both 
Capital  and  Labor.  More  recent  and  less  bril- 
liant writers  state  with  conviction  and  assump- 
tion of  authority  that  all  wealth  comes  from 


422  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EFFICIENCY 

Land,  Labor,  and  Capital.  Wealth  comes  not 
from  without,  but  from  within.  Caruso  singing 
for  his  pleasure  draws  $5,000  a  night!  A  wo- 
man finds  that  her  favor  brings  her  a  million 
dollars  or  an  imperial  crown!  Ideals  create 
wealth.  What  gives  value  to  gold,  to  diamonds  ? 
What  makes  a  square  foot  of  land  in  parts  of 
New  York  worth  $1,000,  other  square  feet  in 
exactly  the  same  locality  not  being  considered 
of  any  value?  Why  is  $500,000  (the  value  of  a 
good-size  industrial  plant)  paid  for  less  than  $5 
cost  of  canvas  and  paint?  The  man  of  supreme 
ability  is  the  one  who  has  supernal  ideals,  who 
recognizes  and  uses  those  underlying  principles 
without  which  human  effort  is  futile,  its  re- 
sults ephemeral.  The  man  of  supreme  ability 
is  the  one  who  can  create  and  control  an  organ- 
ization founded  on  and  using  principles  to  at- 
tain and  maintain  ideals,  who  then  is  able  to 
assemble  for  the  use  of  his  organization  the  in- 
cidentals of  land,  of  men,  and  money  (Labor 
and  Capital),  of  buildings  and  equipment,  of 
methods  and  devices.  All  these  incidentals 
make  for  volume,  for  quantity,  for  man's  work 
instead  of  woman's  work,  but  they  do  not  make 
for  the  spirit,  nor  for  the  quality,  nor  for  the 
excellence  of  work. 


EXECUTIVE    CONTROL  423 

What  would  not  the  physical  properties  of 
the  Steel  Corporation  be  worth  if  they  were 
but  instruments  to  supplement  supernal  men 
working  through  principles  to  realize  supernal 
ideals  ?  Moreover,  if  because  of  the  hardness  of 
their  hearts,  spiritual  and  ethical  rewards  are 
too  remote  to  prove  incentives,  there  are  other 
and  nearer  rewards.  Wastes,  physical  as  well 
as  spiritual,  being  eliminated,  intelligence  be- 
ing prodigally  lavished,  time  and  money,  efforts 
and  materials  being  conserved,  the  cost  of  pro- 
duct will  fall,  thereby  increasing  the  demand; 
more  men  will  each  receive  more  money  in 
wages,  thus  still  further  increasing  the  demand 
for  products;  higher  dividends  will  be  paid, 
which  will  still  further  stimulate  construction 
requiring  steel. 

It  is  impossible  that  righteousness  married 
to  wisdom  should  rule  without  immensely  bene- 
fitting  humanity. 


For  heathen  heart  that  puts  her  trust 

In  reeking  tube  and  iron  shard, 
All    valiant    dust   that   builds    on    dust 

And  guarding  calls  not  Thee  to  guard—- 
For frantic  boast  and  foolish   word, 
Thy  mercy  on  Thy  people,  Lord! 

THE  END. 


boolc  ROOM 


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